Postal Department's Payment Bank to Start from March 2017

March 2017, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said today.

As many as 40 international financial conglomerates, including World Bank and Barclays, have shown interest to partner with Postal Department for the payment bank, Prasad said on the sidelines of an event on Good Governance.

"We will start the postal payment bank by March 2017," the Minister said.

The Reserve Bank granted in-principle approval to 11 applicants, including Postal Department, in August to set up payments banks.

The Department of Electronics and Information Technology is celebrating Good Governance Week, from December 25, 2015.

The Minister also launched 23 products and services including Wi-Fi hotspots at Har ki Pauri, Haridwar and Dargah Sharif, Ajmer and BPO promotion scheme, among others, on the
occasion.

He said after the successful turnaround of BSNL, new initiatives have been taken for improving performance of MTNL also.

Besides, Prasad announced the launch of free incoming all over the country by MTNL from next year.

Regarding the BharatNet project, the Minister said as of December 20, about 79,593 kilometres of optical fibre has been laid in 33,702 gram panchayats.

"By March, we will reach 50,000 gram panchayats and one lakh gram panchayats by the end of next year," he said.

Prasad also reiterated the commitment of the government towards the implementation of 'Digital India' programme.

The Minister said e-services should reach more people at the earliest and sought cooperation from state governments, industry and academia in the early achievement of this objective.

Over 9,500 Complaints Pending With Banking Ombudsmen: RBI

Over 9,500 complaints of deficient services by nationalised and private sector banks are pending with banking ombudsmen, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has said.

The revised Banking Ombudsman scheme 2006 allows a customer to seek redress of complaints against banks relating to credit cards and house loans, among others.

The number of complaints pending for resolution as on December 13, 2015 was 9,508, the RBI said in response to an RTI query.

"No time limit is specified for resolution of complaint under Banking Ombudsman Scheme, 2006," it said.

The number of complaints received by banking ombudsmen across the country from January 1 to December 13 this year was 87,683, the RBI said.

According to the RBI's annual report on the scheme for 2014-15, a total of 85,131 complaints were received by it during the last fiscal year.

"Public sector banks accounted for 65 per cent of the total complaints out of which 31 per cent (26,529) complaints were against State Bank of India (SBI) and associates group," it said.

Private sector banks accounted for 23 per cent (19,773) complaints, whereas four per cent (3406) were against foreign banks.

Regional rural banks and scheduled urban co-operative banks accounted for 2 per cent (1,966) of the complaints received. Six per cent (4,566) of the complaints were against non-bank entities not covered under the Banking Ombudsman scheme, the RBI said.

There are 15 banking ombudsmen across the country. 

The Reserve Bank of India had introduced the Banking Ombudsman scheme in 1995 that provided for resolution of customers' complaints relating to deficiency in banking services.

The scheme was revised twice - in 2002 and in 2005. The current scheme came into force from January 1, 2006.

Bank Employees to Strike Work on January 8

Around 340,000 bank employees across the country would strike work on January 8 to protest the violation of bilateral settlement by the five associate banks of the State Bank of India (SBI), a top leader of All India Bank Employees' Association (AIBEA) said here.

The five associate banks of the SBI are State Bank of Mysore, State Bank of Patiala, State Bank of Hyderabad and State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur.

"Nearly 340,000 bankers would strike work on January 8. The strike is to protest against the violation of bilateral settlement by the five associate banks of SBI and their attempt to force unilateral service conditions on employees," CH Venkatachalam, AIBEA general secretary, told IANS here on Monday.

According to him, it is the AIBEA that has given the strike call.

Explaining the rationale behind the strike call, Venkatachalam said the service conditions in the SBI are different and based on the agreement between the SBI management and the employees' union.

On the other hand, the service conditions of the five SBI associate banks are common with those of other banks.

"In May 2015, a common settlement was signed between Indian Banks' Association (IBA-management body) and All India Bank Employees' Association (AIBEA) which defined the duties and remuneration of the employees for undertaking various jobs in the banks," Venkatachalam said.

He said the five SBI associate banks are parties to the settlement and hence governed by the settlement terms.

"But the managements of the five associate banks are implementing the service conditions of the SBI, which is illegal and violation of the settlement," he said.

Asked why the strike has been called early in the year, he said the union had deferred the strike call given for December 1 and 2, 2015, on the intervention of deputy chief labour commissioner, Delhi.

"The bank management is forcing its rules without any discussion with the unions from the New Year onwards and hence we are forced to respond," Venkatachalam said.

Dear Prime Minister Please Improve the Conditions of Public Sector Bankers

Dear Prime Minister,

This petetion carries with it the pain,frustation and anger of the bankers. We would like to bring to your notice that Public Sector Bankers in India are working under pathetic conditions and still giving great results. Recently they brought pride to the nation by entering Guinness Book of World Records for opening largest number of accounts in one week under Jan-Dhan Yojna. This is their ability and strength.They work for unlimited hours under heavy stress with bare minimum resources and without caring for their family and health.They are the backbone of the nation and carry the responsibility of whole economy. But now this backbone is in deep trouble and due to this, nation faces serious risk regarding proper development of the economy.

It is very painful to inform you that this sector is loosing its charm and the youngsters are moving away from this field which was once among most desirable. The situation is that this sector is no more attracting the top talents.

Every year thousands of youngsters are quitting their job in the public sector banks. If the conditions will not improve, the future of PSBs will be in jeopardy. In this era of tough competition if banks will not be able attract and hold the talent, they will not able to survive and this will be very dangerous for the country.

Working conditions and remuneration in PSBs is very unattractive and repelling for the youngsters. Here the point to be noted is that public sector bankers are very poorly paid and face extreme conditions of working. Situation is so bad that from January,2016 after implementation of 7th pay commission the salary of new joining bank officer will become less than that of central government clerk.It is a huge difference and very depressing for the banker.Bankers have to work all the 6 days and even on 7th day too without being able to give proper time to himself and his family.Bankers are suffering from almost all stress related diseases and all time feel the pressure.

Dear Prime Minister, in the view of all these things we request you to save this sector. Please take necessary steps to attract and hold the talent. Create the conditions where the bankers feel themselves as appreciated and happy. Create the conditions where they feel energetic and motivated to bring out best everyday.

For this we request you to take proper care of salary revision and other demands of the bankers.

• (i). Central Pay Commission - Please compensate the bankers respectfully to the extent that they do not feel less than their counterparts in other sectors.It will bring happiness to them and will motivate them and also will attract young talent. For this We demand implementation of Central Pay Commission for bankers too.
• (ii). 5 Days working - We demand 5 days working in banking sector. Bankers are under constant stress and due to work pressure they are not able to take care of their health and also they are not able to spend time with their families.This completely drains them emotionally and physically and they find themselves depressed and demotivated.  5 days working will provide them proper rest and energy to work more on the working days. Moreover due to availability and reach of alternate channels common public will not miss the bankers. For your kind attention, Reserve Bank of India and Indian Share market too work only 5 days a week.

This petition represents all the Public Sector Bankers and we believe that Mr Prime Minister will take necessary steps to fulfill the long pending demands of Public sector bankers and provide them the relief they deserve.

With this petition we want to persuade Government of India to take proper care of about 1 million Public Sector Bankers. We request all the bankers,their family members and their well wishers to sign this petition and make it as much effective as possible.

Dear supporters,

Please sign this petition and make others sign it too. Our collective efforts are must to make impact and desired changes. For this you will have to work on it personally.Share this petition with as much people as possible, you can use facebook, email, twitter etc for spreading it. Please spread it so that we can persuade Prime Minister of India to take care of bankers.

No LPG subsidy if taxable income exceeds Rs 10 Lac

No LPG subsidy if taxable income exceeds Rs 10 Lac

Benefit of LPG subsidy will not be available if the consumer or his/her spouse had taxable income of more than Rs Ten lakh in previous financial year 

At present, there are 16.35 crore LPG consumers in the country. With the implementation of the PAHAL Scheme (DBTL), the subsidy is being transferred directly to the Bank Account of 14.78 crore LPG Consumers. The objective of the scheme was to ensure that the subsidy benefits go to the targeted group. The Government had also given a call to the well-to-do households for voluntarily giving up LPG subsidy. So far, 57.50 lakh LPG consumers have opted out of LPG subsidy voluntarily heeding the call given by the Prime Minister. The subsidy saved from the ‘GiveitUp’ campaign is being utilized for providing new connections to the BPL families under the ‘Giveback’ campaign. This enables provision of LPG, a clean fuel, to poor households by replacing the conventional fuels such as kerosene, coal, fuel wood, cow dung, etc. relieving the poor of the hardships and health hazards from such fuels.

While many consumers have given up subsidy voluntarily, it is felt that consumers in the higher income bracket should get LPG cylinders at the market price. Therefore, the Government has decided that the benefit of the LPG subsidy will not be available for LPG consumers if the consumer or his/her spouse had taxable income of more than Rs 10,00,000/- during the previous financial year computed as per the Income Tax Act, 1961. In keeping with the approach of trusting the citizens, this will be given effect to initially on self-declaration basis while booking cylinders from January 2016 onwards

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Five Reasons Why You Can Get an Income Tax Notice

Receiving an income tax notice can be scary for most people. From not filing returns to hiding interest income, the reasons can vary for attracting a notice. Avoid these most common mistakes if you don't want to get an income tax notice.

1) Not filing income tax returns

According to income tax law, if your gross income (without any deductions) is above the exempted limit of Rs 2.5 lakh in case of individuals, Rs 3 lakh for senior citizens (60-80 years of age) and Rs 5 lakh for super seniors (above 80 years), you are liable to file a tax return. Also, irrespective of the fact that your employer has deducted the tax at source (TDS) or not, you have to file an income tax return. Many people also believe that since they don't have a tax refund to claim, they don't need to file return. But that's a misconception.

According to Preeti Khurana, chief editor of Cleartax.in, "If you are a resident Indian and you own a foreign asset or are a signing authority in a foreign bank account, you have to file an income tax return irrespective of your income." If you fail to do so, you may get a notice from the income tax department, she added.

2) TDS errors

If there is mismatch between the TDS deposited by your employer and the income tax return filed by you, you may get an income tax notice. You should always check your tax credit statement (Form 26AS) online before filing the return. If a wrong TDS has been credited to your account or it has been credited to a wrong PAN, despite it being deducted from your salary, you can come under scrutiny.

3) Hiding interest income

Many people knowingly or unknowingly don't include the interest income from their saving account, fixed deposits and recurring deposits in their income tax returns. The interest from saving account up to Rs 10,000 is tax deductible under Section 80 TTA while interest on fixed deposits and recurring deposits is fully taxable. In case of fixed deposits and recurring deposit, a TDS will be deducted in case the interest income exceeds Rs 10,000 in a financial year. But whether the interest is taxable or not, you have to disclose all your interest income in your tax return. So reveal the interest income in your return and then avail the deduction if any. Not doing so can result in a tax notice.

4) Mismatch or concealment of income

If your actual income, expenditure or investments differ from the one declared in your income tax return, you can get an income tax notice under Section 143(3)/143(7). You would be asked to provide clarifications and documents for re-calculation of your income.

"Notice is issued when tax authorities are of the opinion that you have concealed a part of your income while filing your return of income. Penalty for concealment of income can be up to a maximum of 300 per cent of tax payable." says Neha Malhotra, executive director of taxation at Nangia & Co.

"The tax authorities can send notices pertaining to years gone by as well. So it is advisable to preserve the tax records for eight years, but where the assessee has any asset situated outside India, he should preserve the documents for past 18 years," she said.

5) Defective income tax return

You should be careful while filing your income tax return. If the income tax authorities find any error they can issue a notice to you under Section 139(9) and direct you to file a revised return on income after correcting the error.