Thursday, July 14, 2011
UTI MICRO PENSION
UTI Mutual Fund today tied up with Srei Sahaj e-village to sell its micro-pension product in the rural regions.
Srei Sahaj e-village is a subsidiary of Srei Infrastructure Finance, which provides e-governance programmes to the Centre and states.
Srei Sahaj e-village has more than 23,000 community service centers across the six states of Assam, Bihar, Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Bengal.
“This will provide us with a huge distribution network for selling our micro-pension product — the UTI Retirement Benefit Pension Fund.
Rural people associated with Srei Sahaj will now be able to contribute as low as Rs 200 a month in UTI Retirement Benefit Pension plan to get a monthly pension when they attain 58 years,” said Jaideep Bhattacharya, group president and chief marketing officer, UTI Asset Management Company.
At present, only two mutual funds — UTI and Templeton India — are allowed to sell retirement plans.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Infosys forecast a worry
Infosys, the country’s second-largest software exporter, warned that it faces a volatile global economy and a possible slowdown in client spending.
The company narrowly missed expectations with a 15.4 per cent rise in first-quarter profit.
The bourses were unimpressed with the software company’s muted guidance, especially a flat dollar forecast; a conservative earnings-per-share estimate and its share price slipped 6 per cent soon after the numbers were announced.
Infosys posted a net profit of Rs 1,722 crore for the three months ended June 30, 2011, a 15.7 per cent increase year-on-year.
However, sequentially the net profit declined 5.3 per cent as higher wage costs impacted the bottom line.
Revenues for the quarter stood at Rs 7,485 crore, a year-on-year growth of 20.8 per cent and a quarter-on-quarter growth of 3.2 per cent.
The company’s muted outlook follows expectations that clients in the US and Europe may spend less.
Chief operating officer S.D. Shibulal, who will take over as CEO in August, said the environment warranted some caution. Customers in Europe are delaying decision making, he said.
The market’s reaction could have been exacerbated as it was looking forward to a “solid quarter” after the company’s lackluster performance in the March quarter.
The company has not revised its guidance in dollar terms for the whole year, which has also disappointed the markets.
In 2011-12, Infosys expects revenues to be in the range of $7.13-7.25 billion, a growth of 18-20 per cent.
Analysts had expected a full-year revenue growth of 20 per cent.
For the quarter ending September 30, the company has said revenues (under IFRS consolidated) are expected to be between Rs 7,699 crore and Rs 7,810 crore, a growth of 10.8-12.4 per cent.
EPS was seen in the range of Rs 29.64 and Rs 30.15.
As on June 30, 2011, cash and cash equivalents, including investments in available-for-sale financial assets and certificates of deposits, was Rs 16,969 crore against Rs 16,005 in June 2010.
The company added 26 new customers and hired 2,740 people on a net basis.
It expects to hire 12,000 employees on a gross basis in the three months till September 30, 2011.
Infosys’s client acquisition numbers are the lowest in four years in the reporting quarter and its costs are increasing because it is paying higher wages to retain talent.
A CLSA report said, “Street hopes now rest on a big out-performance in September quarter and we would advise caution here.”
The management expects margins in the second quarter to remain flat.
The Infosys share ended 4.27 per cent lower at Rs 2,794.25 on the BSE yesterday from its previous closing day.
TPA ban
Insurance regulator IRDA is planing to ban the third party administrators (TPA) from operating as intermediaries in the government-sponsored health insurance schemes.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
LLPs get bourse ticket
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) today announced that limited liability partnerships (LLPs) can become members of stock exchanges.
In other words, LLPs can register as stock brokers. The market regulator made this relaxation after receiving various requests from stock exchanges. The capital market watchdog said stock exchanges had been permitted to admit LLPs as members to enable the latter to get registration as stock brokers.
LLP is a business structure coming between a partnership firm and a corporate body.
The market regulator added that the Securities Contract Regulation Rules, 1956 (SCRR) do not explicitly mention LLPs as the Limited Liability Partnership Act, 2008 was a subsequent development.
According to the LLP Act, LLP is a body corporate.
SCRR rules provide that limited liability companies (LLC) and partnership firms are eligible to be admitted as members of stock exchanges.
“In this context, it may be stated that LLPs are akin to LLCs and partnership firms,’’ Sebi said.
None can avail exemption from filing income tax return
The exemption to file return for income up to 5 lakh looks good on paper, but nobody will be able to fulfill the conditions Your Sweet Money Observes.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has made millions of Indians smile by announcing that salaried taxpayers with an annual income of up to Rs 5 lakh need not file their returns.
They won't have to spend time, effort and money in filing their tax returns. Or so they think. Given the stiff conditions, it' unlikely that anyone will be able to avail of the concession.
Here's why the CBDT's proposal is just a clever ploy, a theoretical relief that nobody will get.
According to the notification, a salaried person is exempt from filing his return for the financial year 2010-11 if he fulfills the following conditions:
· Income after allowable deductions is up to Rs 5 lakh
· Income is only from salary and savings bank interest
· Salary is from one employer
· Savings bank interest is below 10,000.
· Tax on bank interest is paid and included in From 16
The announcement comes at a time when Form 16 have already been prepared and issued to taxpayers. Will it be possible to make the necessary changes in the Form 16 at this late stage?
The second requirement that the income should be only from salary and savings bank interest is patently illogical. How many people who earn more than Rs 3-4 lakh a year will not have income from fixed deposits, mutual funds, stock trading, gold and property?
You invested in fixed deposits or NSCs to save tax or received dividend from your ELSS fund during the year, you don't make the cut for the exemption. Have you given your house on rent for even one month? Sorry, you will have to file returns.
Anybody who bought infrastructure bonds to claim deduction under Sec 80CCF is also not eligible. Only a person who has no tax-saving investments and lets all his money idle in a bank will be eligible.
Let us assume that there is indeed somebody who has no such investments and, therefore, no income other than from his salary and the interest on the bank account.
The second requirement that the income should be only from salary and savings bank interest is patently illogical. How many people who earn more than Rs 3-4 lakh a year will not have income from fixed deposits, mutual funds, stock trading, gold and property?
You invested in fixed deposits or NSCs to save tax or received dividend from your ELSS fund during the year, you don't make the cut for the exemption. Have you given your house on rent for even one month? Sorry, you will have to file returns.
Anybody who bought infrastructure bonds to claim deduction under Sec 80CCF is also not eligible. Only a person who has no tax-saving investments and lets all his money idle in a bank will be eligible.
Let us assume that there is indeed somebody who has no such investments and, therefore, no income other than from his salary and the interest on the bank account.
Even then, he may not be able to fulfill the conditions for exemption.
The notification says that the tax due on the interest income should have been paid and the income and the tax should be mentioned in Form 16 from the employer. The interest on bank account is credited on a half-yearly basis.
The interest from October to March gets credited after March 31. You need to be a financial expert to correctly estimate the tax due on this income and pay the right amount.
That's not all. You also need to provide these details to your employer in time for the accounts division to mention them in your Form 16.
A taxpayer's quest for filing nirvana doesn't end here. If he has changed jobs during the year, a taxpayer won't be exempt from filing his tax returns.
That's not all. You also need to provide these details to your employer in time for the accounts division to mention them in your Form 16.
A taxpayer's quest for filing nirvana doesn't end here. If he has changed jobs during the year, a taxpayer won't be exempt from filing his tax returns.
Given the high employee turnover rate in certain industries, such as software and IT-enabled services, very few people in these sectors will be able to claim exemption.
Even if the employer agrees to include these details in the Form 16, there will be other deductions that won't be mentioned in Form 16. For instance, any donation to charitable organisations is not mentioned in Form 16.
Even if the employer agrees to include these details in the Form 16, there will be other deductions that won't be mentioned in Form 16. For instance, any donation to charitable organisations is not mentioned in Form 16.
It is up to the taxpayer to claim deduction for the donation and this can only be done by filing the return.
Similarly, if you have carried forward losses or have a refund, you won't be able to do so if you don't file.
Remember, if you don't file your return, you also forego your right to modify your return to include any deduction you may have missed.
Similarly, if you have carried forward losses or have a refund, you won't be able to do so if you don't file.
Remember, if you don't file your return, you also forego your right to modify your return to include any deduction you may have missed.
Only taxpayers who file their return by the due date can file a revised return. Given the plethora of paperwork required to avail of the exemption and the possible repercussions of not filing your return, it seems that spending 30-40 minutes online is a far simpler option.
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