ATM cards were free.ATM-cum-debit cards aren't. Some like the add-ons, others don't need it. All have to pay. Fair? A debate.
Gautam Chikermane
But I don’t want power steering in my car... Yes, I know it will make driving easier... Yes, I know it’s the latest technology... Yes, I know it’s the future, but I’m perfectly happy with my current status... No, I don’t need any upgrades...
SOUNDS FAMILIAR? Isn’t this a common refrain, no matter what the product? If it’s not cars, it’s something else. In this case, it’s your ATM card, that kind piece of plastic that revolutionised banking and made your life so much simpler. Even better, it comes free. As it should, you’d imagine–after all, it’s only a tool that lets you access your own money. But it looks like the party may be over: some foreign banks have taken the lead in charging customers for the use of their new-generation ATM-cum-debit cards. Did you say: ‘...but I don’t need a debit card’. You are not alone, but these banks are not listening. When your plain-vanilla ATM card lapses, like it or not, you’ll be handed an ATM-cum-debit card, and billed Rs 100-150 a year for its use.
For most of you who read this magazine, paying Rs 100-150 a year will not hurt. (On the other hand, it will add up to Rs 30 crore to the profits of some of these banks.) It’s, then, a matter of principle that we are talking about.
Story in Outlook Money
Tuesday, June 17, 2003
Saturday, March 15, 2003
Why break my budgets?
The middle class heaved a sigh of relief at the Budget 2003 proposals. Take a look at how it will affect your salary and taxes, retirement funds, home buying plan, shopping basket, investments in small savings, stocks and mutual funds.
Gautam Chikermane
NOISE–THAT'S how I would define the smart, 30-second sound-bites on TV by government officials, corporate captains, economists, analysts and tax experts following Budget 2003. But after an hour of this mindless cacophony, I find most of the common man’s concerns numbed into inertia. His critical concern–what should I do?–remains unacknowledged. In this package, we propose to help you steer clear of that dissonance and move into a quieter, more efficient (but less glamorous) financial harmony.
To give credit where it’s due, the finance minister has imparted dignity to the honest tax payer. By recognising "best tax compliance" and abolishing the discretion-based scrutiny, Jaswant Singh has indeed given the beginnings of respect, Samman, to the tax payer. This will also curb corruption, as will Singh’s announcement that all refunds will be directly credited to the taxpayer’s bank account. The rewriting of individual taxpayer’s form into one page is yet another step in the right direction. But in early 2002, when Singh’s predecessor tried this experiment, he ended up with a 10-page form, that needed another nine pages of ‘guidance notes’ to decode. Ironically, Yashwant Sinha called that outrage Saral. What will Singh do?
Opinion in Outlook Money
Gautam Chikermane
NOISE–THAT'S how I would define the smart, 30-second sound-bites on TV by government officials, corporate captains, economists, analysts and tax experts following Budget 2003. But after an hour of this mindless cacophony, I find most of the common man’s concerns numbed into inertia. His critical concern–what should I do?–remains unacknowledged. In this package, we propose to help you steer clear of that dissonance and move into a quieter, more efficient (but less glamorous) financial harmony.
To give credit where it’s due, the finance minister has imparted dignity to the honest tax payer. By recognising "best tax compliance" and abolishing the discretion-based scrutiny, Jaswant Singh has indeed given the beginnings of respect, Samman, to the tax payer. This will also curb corruption, as will Singh’s announcement that all refunds will be directly credited to the taxpayer’s bank account. The rewriting of individual taxpayer’s form into one page is yet another step in the right direction. But in early 2002, when Singh’s predecessor tried this experiment, he ended up with a 10-page form, that needed another nine pages of ‘guidance notes’ to decode. Ironically, Yashwant Sinha called that outrage Saral. What will Singh do?
Opinion in Outlook Money
Friday, January 31, 2003
Where to invest in 2003
Ignore the prophets of doom. There's hope on the horizon. But only if you read the signs right.
Gautam Chikermane
I’m going down...down...down...down...
–Bruce Springsteen, Born in the USA, 1984
The rock star was talking about his heart, but 19 years later, this song could well be talking about investment returns. When I meet pensioners, they cry about lower returns from small savings and fixed deposits. The young cry about money they’ve lost in stocks. People in their forties and fifties are worried stiff that tax breaks may soon be history. Households are finding it difficult to balance their budgets at a time when salaries are frozen, if not cut; some have even lost jobs and are perforce dipping into their savings. Down...down...down...down...
What’s up? Hopes.
The dust of gloom that rose from the debris of the Twin Towers, and giant corporations gone bust, and the securities scam closer home has begun to settle down–and the signs of an economy on the upswing are there for all to see.
Opinion in Outlook Money
Gautam Chikermane
I’m going down...down...down...down...
–Bruce Springsteen, Born in the USA, 1984
The rock star was talking about his heart, but 19 years later, this song could well be talking about investment returns. When I meet pensioners, they cry about lower returns from small savings and fixed deposits. The young cry about money they’ve lost in stocks. People in their forties and fifties are worried stiff that tax breaks may soon be history. Households are finding it difficult to balance their budgets at a time when salaries are frozen, if not cut; some have even lost jobs and are perforce dipping into their savings. Down...down...down...down...
What’s up? Hopes.
The dust of gloom that rose from the debris of the Twin Towers, and giant corporations gone bust, and the securities scam closer home has begun to settle down–and the signs of an economy on the upswing are there for all to see.
Opinion in Outlook Money
Saturday, August 31, 2002
Omissions & Commissions
The Sebi move to bar agents from using incentives to bait gullible investors is good--but not quite good enough.
Gautam Chikermane
POLICYMAKERS HAVE a problem. They can’t look beyond their noses–or, rather, the spreadsheets in which their noses are buried. Which is why even well-intentioned policy exercises, ostensibly aimed at protecting investors’ interests, do not come close to delivering the intended results. Take, for instance, the recent Sebi (Securities and Exchange Board of India) decision to make rebating illegal. Well-intentioned? Yes. Thought-through, well-executed? Definitely not.
Story in Outlook Money
Gautam Chikermane
POLICYMAKERS HAVE a problem. They can’t look beyond their noses–or, rather, the spreadsheets in which their noses are buried. Which is why even well-intentioned policy exercises, ostensibly aimed at protecting investors’ interests, do not come close to delivering the intended results. Take, for instance, the recent Sebi (Securities and Exchange Board of India) decision to make rebating illegal. Well-intentioned? Yes. Thought-through, well-executed? Definitely not.
Story in Outlook Money
Should you dump Tata shares?
Accounting irregularities. Performance below par. Are the Tatas worth your money anymore, especially after the Tata Finance episode? The stock market has given its verdict by dumping Tata shares. What do you feel? Write in and share your views on the issue with others.
Gautam Chikermane
Integrity–we must conduct our business fairly, with honesty and transparency.
Everything we do must stand the test of public scrutiny.
--One of the five core values of the Tata Group
IN THIS day and age, trust is a lost cause. From business to accounting to politics, everything is malleable, manipulable. And the
Rs 41,300 crore Tata Group, that stretches across 80 companies in seven sectors, is facing all these problems all at once. The question that today haunts more than 2 million shareholders of the 35 listed Tata Group companies is this: can we trust the Tatas?
Story in Outlook Money
Gautam Chikermane
Integrity–we must conduct our business fairly, with honesty and transparency.
Everything we do must stand the test of public scrutiny.
--One of the five core values of the Tata Group
IN THIS day and age, trust is a lost cause. From business to accounting to politics, everything is malleable, manipulable. And the
Rs 41,300 crore Tata Group, that stretches across 80 companies in seven sectors, is facing all these problems all at once. The question that today haunts more than 2 million shareholders of the 35 listed Tata Group companies is this: can we trust the Tatas?
Story in Outlook Money
Thursday, August 15, 2002
Unearned income
It all boils down to a four-letter word called risk: find the inclination to court it, and you'll be on your way to riches.
Gautam Chikermane
WHY IS it that the rich keep getting richer and the poor poorer? What is it that prevents wealth from percolating down to the man of merit from the man of money? Why are the Bill Gates or Warren Buffetts, who have created immense wealth for themselves on their own steam, so few? In this age of knowledge, why is it that the knowledgeable person is found working for organisations either run or funded by the rich–why isn’t he wealthy? What is it that keeps money in the hands of the rich?
The answer: unearned income.
I owe this insight to a friend, who claims that the only way people become truly wealthy is when they don’t earn the money. What he is really saying is that people become rich only when they start making their money–rather than themselves–sweat for what they earn. Almost as if they had created an obedient, intelligent robot. When I examined this closely, I found myself nodding in agreement. This is a valuable lesson for us middle-class people, for whom the whole philosophy and process of wealth creation is relatively new, and one which has only recently got moral sanction. For decades we’ve lived in the belief that we have to earn our daily bread–daily.
Opinion in Outlook Money
Gautam Chikermane
WHY IS it that the rich keep getting richer and the poor poorer? What is it that prevents wealth from percolating down to the man of merit from the man of money? Why are the Bill Gates or Warren Buffetts, who have created immense wealth for themselves on their own steam, so few? In this age of knowledge, why is it that the knowledgeable person is found working for organisations either run or funded by the rich–why isn’t he wealthy? What is it that keeps money in the hands of the rich?
The answer: unearned income.
I owe this insight to a friend, who claims that the only way people become truly wealthy is when they don’t earn the money. What he is really saying is that people become rich only when they start making their money–rather than themselves–sweat for what they earn. Almost as if they had created an obedient, intelligent robot. When I examined this closely, I found myself nodding in agreement. This is a valuable lesson for us middle-class people, for whom the whole philosophy and process of wealth creation is relatively new, and one which has only recently got moral sanction. For decades we’ve lived in the belief that we have to earn our daily bread–daily.
Opinion in Outlook Money
Wednesday, August 14, 2002
Homelessly happy
A roof over the head does give security -- if it's your own. But taking on debt to fund that roof? In these times?
Gautam Chikermane
I’M BUYING a house.’ That’s my friend who, like me, would shudder at the prospect of using a credit card, leave alone taking a home loan. He’s not even looking at one of those EWS (economically weaker section) houses. The one he has in mind is worth Rs 24 lakh–a sizeable multiple of his salary. And his reasons are hardly original: the taxes and the rent I pay will get converted into a monthly instalment, though I could suffer for 15 to 18 months till I get possession. He reminds me of another friend, who just six months ago, moved from Mumbai to New Delhi, more specifically from a rented place in Bandra to a posh Rs 50 lakh apartment south of New Delhi. "I save taxes, I save on rent..." went the predictable argument, when I questioned her courage to take on such a huge loan.
They are not alone. If data is to be believed, amid the job losses and the recession and the business uncertainty and industrial slowdown, the one sector that has done well is housing finance. At a growth rate of about 35 per cent last year and an expected 50 per cent this year, this is one industry that seems oblivious of and untouched by the R-word plaguing the rest of India–from farmers and workers to entrepreneurs and bankers. As an industry, it is probably one of the safest in the financial sector-–individual households with so much of their wealth at stake in a single asset are least likely to default. Compare that to the Rs 75,000 crore of financial assets stuck with corporations, for which a new ordinance has had to be introduced. But I’m not interested in the profits or losses of companies.
Opinion in Outlook Money
Gautam Chikermane
I’M BUYING a house.’ That’s my friend who, like me, would shudder at the prospect of using a credit card, leave alone taking a home loan. He’s not even looking at one of those EWS (economically weaker section) houses. The one he has in mind is worth Rs 24 lakh–a sizeable multiple of his salary. And his reasons are hardly original: the taxes and the rent I pay will get converted into a monthly instalment, though I could suffer for 15 to 18 months till I get possession. He reminds me of another friend, who just six months ago, moved from Mumbai to New Delhi, more specifically from a rented place in Bandra to a posh Rs 50 lakh apartment south of New Delhi. "I save taxes, I save on rent..." went the predictable argument, when I questioned her courage to take on such a huge loan.
They are not alone. If data is to be believed, amid the job losses and the recession and the business uncertainty and industrial slowdown, the one sector that has done well is housing finance. At a growth rate of about 35 per cent last year and an expected 50 per cent this year, this is one industry that seems oblivious of and untouched by the R-word plaguing the rest of India–from farmers and workers to entrepreneurs and bankers. As an industry, it is probably one of the safest in the financial sector-–individual households with so much of their wealth at stake in a single asset are least likely to default. Compare that to the Rs 75,000 crore of financial assets stuck with corporations, for which a new ordinance has had to be introduced. But I’m not interested in the profits or losses of companies.
Opinion in Outlook Money
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