Page 11 - Harsh Roongta

They are good enough to die for us but ...

Clearly any reasonable person will be outraged that the banking system has placed our soldiers in the lowest hierarchy of the new "caste" system that has been created

Stable, predictable tax regime to help investor confidence

Unlike investors who can perhaps be jacketed as retail or corporate, investor confidence is a single unit that swings together

Why the retrospective amendment, Mr FM?

About 159 FMPs were redeemed in April-May 2014. Since exact numbers were not available, assuming each scheme at Rs 50 crore and assuming all of them were for less than three years, the total figure is

Allow firms to choose the TDS rate

The move will make sense as it will benefit the govt, save money and enormously improve the ease of doing business

Even 'safe' instruments can give good returns

Prepayment penalty on floating rate loans may come back

Making the transfer process painless will go a long way in ensuring the interest rates charged are fair, even if the regulations themselves do not provide a transparent basis for calculating the bench

Zero prepayment fee not enough to ensure fair deal for borrowers

This is a welcome step, since Indian borrowers have been charged high interest rates through a unique form of floating rates by all lenders

You can say no to term plan bundled with home loan

Will NPS go the EPF way?

Banks will charge for better services

Changes in regulations and the imminent enforcement of some long-standing regulations are pushing up the cost for banks apart from the general cost inflation

Dilemmas over education loans

Keep insurance and investment separate

Should you buy online term plans with high claim rejection rates?

Online policies are cheap because there is no agent's fee involved, other administrative costs of the insurance company are lower and, most importantly, these use the latest statistics for calculating

Does real estate give spectacular returns?

Courts should revise penalty upwards, compound it

Are banks wrongly branding people as defaulters?

Credit bureaus have become a weapon banks wield even against a consumer who deserves much better

Should you obsess about your Cibil score?

If you pay your debts on time and have reasonable debt in line with your income, you are fine

Do you know your home loan interest rate?

RBI and NHB have both acknowledged the market practice of Indian lenders is to charge higher rates to old home loan consumers, while providing lower rates to new ones

Take care: Exit ahead!

Just as you eliminate the impact of timing by investing in SIP mode, you must also exit systematically. Ideally, you should exit in the same extended fashion in which you invest, though this is unlike

The more things change, they actually change...

HFCs such as HDFC, LIC Housing Finance, etc, are governed by the NHB and do not have to follow the base rate mechanism