Income Tax Slabs for Financial Year 2012-13

Here’s the Income Tax Slabs for the financial year 2012-13, based on the budget presented by the Finance Minister on 16th March 2012.

General
Till 2,00,000 – 0%
2,00,001 ~ 5,00,000 – 10%
5,00,001 ~ 10,00,000 – 20%
Above 10,00,000 – 30%

Senior Citizen (Between 60 & 80 years)
Till 2,50,000 – 0%
2,50,001 ~ 5,00,000 – 10%
5,00,001 ~ 10,00,000 – 20%
Above 10,00,000 – 30%

Very Senior Citizen (Above 80 years)
Till 5,00,000 – 0%
5,00,001 ~ 10,00,000 – 20%
Above 10,00,000 – 30%

Comments
The Finance Minister didn’t mention about a separate tax slab for women. Either it is awaited or we will see that it is unified with the General category. I think the unification of tax slabs for men and women makes greater sense.

The first slab is raised from 1,80,000 to 2,00,000 leading to a maximum tax savings of 2,000 in this slab. People earning income between 8,00,000 and 10,00,000 are the biggest beneficiaries of the new tax slabs as this range of income moves from a 30% slab to 20% slab, resulting in a maximum tax savings of 20,000.

Overall, this is not a great relaxation for the income earning populace at a time when the cost of living has consistently been higher and is not showing any signs of cooling.

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Inflation rates of India (2012)

This post tracks inflation rates of India for the year 2012. To have a look at previous inflation rates, please read,
- Inflation rates of India (2010)
- Inflation rates of India (2009)
- Inflation rates of India (2008)

Before that, a few facts about inflation rate calculation in India.
- Inflation in India is based on Wholesale Price Index
- A set of 435 commodities are used for the WPI based inflation calculation
- The base year for WPI calculation is 1993-94
- WPI is available at the end of every month, for a period of 1 year ended that month

Latest Inflation Rate
- 2012 Feb - 6.95% (via)
(for 12 months ended on the given month)

Previous Inflation Rates (for 12 months ended on given month)
- 2012 Feb - 6.95% (via)
- 2012 Jan - 6.55% (via)

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Inflation rates of India (2010)

This post tracks inflation rates of India for the year 2010, like Inflation rates of India (2009) did for 2009 and Inflation rates of India (2008) did for 2008. Before that, a few facts about inflation rate calculation in India.

- Inflation in India is based on Wholesale Price Index
- A set of 435 commodities are used for the WPI based inflation calculation
- The base year for WPI calculation is 1993-94
- WPI is available at the end of every month, for a period of 1 year ended that day

Latest Inflation Rate
- 2010 Sep - 8.62% (via)
(for 12 months ended on the given month)

Previous Inflation Rates (for 12 months ended on given month)
- 2010 Aug - 8.51% (via)
- 2010 Jul - 9.97% (via)
- 2010 Jun - 10.55% (via)
- 2010 May - 10.16% (via)
- 2010 Apr - 9.59% (via)
- 2010 Mar - 9.90% (via)
- 2010 Feb - 9.89% (via)
- 2010 Jan - 8.56% (via)

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New system for inflation rates in India

No, the government is not moving towards implementing CPI based inflation calculation, but from October onwards, instead of releasing weekly inflation figures, the full data on wholesale price index will be released only on a monthly basis.

As per the decision taken by the government, the weekly index figures will not be released for manufactured products, but will be limited to primary articles and fuels. Manufactured products have a weightage of 63.74851%, while primary articles and fuel have weightages 22.02525% and 14.22624% respectively in inflation calculation.

The government says that the practice of releasing weekly inflation rates is scrapped to curb "volatility" in the markets. But, is it a gradual shift towards adopting CPI, where CPI figures are generally released on a monthly basis?

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India moving closer to adopt GST

The 13th Finance Commission (TFC) has endorsed its proposal for single goods and services tax (GST) and recommended a “revenue-neutral” rate of 12% – Livemint.

Of the 12%, 5% will go to the center and 7% to the states. From the state’s share, 2% will go to third tier of governments made up of panchayats and local bodies.

Currently different states charge different tax rates for the same goods and services and there’s an incentive for an individual to purchase goods from a state where tax rates are lower. The difference in tax rates sometimes lead to the smuggling of goods as well.

Once adopted, GST will enable uniform tax rates for similar goods and services across the country. It would economically unify the country, reduce the incidence of tax and ensure greater revenue through better compliance. Most of developed countries of the world use GST.

The union government had promised to adopt GST by 1st April 2010, but has been unable to get the states to agree to the schedule. Some states fear that they would lose their existing tax revenues if they adopt GST.

To take care of this apprehension, the commission recommends creating a ‘safety net’ (a compensation fund with a corpus of Rs. 30,000 crore) in five years by the center. Any state which suffers a revenue loss from implementing GST shall be compensated using the safety net.

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Inflation rates of India (2009)

This post tracks inflation rates of India for the year 2009, like Inflation rates of India (2008) did for 2008. Before that, a few facts about inflation rate calculation in India.

- Inflation in India is based on Wholesale Price Index
- A set of 435 commodities are used for the WPI based inflation calculation
- The base year for WPI calculation is 1993-94
- WPI is available at the end of every week (generally Saturday), for a period of 1 year ended that day
- It has a time lag of 2 weeks (WPI for the year ended two weeks back will be available this week)

Latest Inflation Rate
- 2009 Nov - 4.78% (via)
(for 12 months ended on the given month)

Previous Inflation Rates (for 12 months ended on given date/month)
- 2009 Oct - 1.34% (via)
- 2009 Oct 17 - 1.51% (via)
- 2009 Oct 10 - 1.21% (via)
- 2009 Oct 03 - 0.92% (via)
- 2009 Sep 26 - 0.70% (via)
- 2009 Sep 19 - 0.83% (via)
- 2009 Sep 12 - 0.37% (via)
- 2009 Sep 05 - 0.12% (via)
- 2009 Aug 29 - (-0.12)% (via)
- 2009 Aug 22 - (-0.21)% (via)
- 2009 Aug 15 - (-0.95)% (via)
- 2009 Aug 08 - (-1.53)% (via)
- 2009 Aug 01 - (-1.74)% (via)
- 2009 Jul 25 - (-1.58)% (via)
- 2009 Jul 18 - (-1.54)% (via)
- 2009 Jul 11 - (-1.17)% (via)
- 2009 Jul 04 - (-1.21)% (via)
- 2009 Jun 27 - (-1.55)% (via)
- 2009 Jun 20 - (-1.30)% (via)
- 2009 Jun 13 - (-1.14)% (via)
- 2009 Jun 06 - (-1.61)% (via)
- 2009 May 30 - 0.13% (via)
- 2009 May 23 - 0.48% (via)
- 2009 May 16 - 0.61% (via)
- 2009 May 09 - 0.61% (via)
- 2009 May 02 - 0.48% (via)
- 2009 Apr 25 - 0.75% (via)
- 2009 Apr 18 - 0.57% (via)
- 2009 Apr 11 - 0.26% (via)
- 2009 Apr 04 - 0.18% (via)
- 2009 Mar 28 - 0.26% (via)
- 2009 Mar 21 - 0.31% (via)
- 2009 Mar 14 - 0.27% (via)
- 2009 Mar 07 - 0.44% (via)
- 2009 Feb 28 - 2.43% (via)
- 2009 Feb 21 - 3.03% (via)
- 2009 Feb 14 - 3.36% (via)
- 2009 Feb 7 - 3.92% (via)
- 2009 Jan 31 - 4.39% (via)
- 2009 Jan 24 - 5.07% (via)
- 2009 Jan 17 - 5.64% (via)
- 2009 Jan 10 - 5.60% (via)
- 2009 Jan 3 - 5.24% (via)

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Indian Inflation turns negative

For the first time since 1977, India's WPI Inflation rate fell to -1.61% for the week ended on June 6 2009!

India’s new Bimetallic 10 Rupee Coin

I might be a little late on this news, but here’s the picture of the new (and first ever) bimetallic coin of Rupees 10 denomination issued by the government of India. The outer ring of the coin is made up of Aluminum and Bronze alloy while the inner section is made up of Nickel and Copper alloy.

There are two themes for the coin.
1) Unity in Diversity and
2) Connectivity and Information Technology.

The coin in the picture has the first theme, Unity in Diversity.

New Symbol for Indian Rupee

The Government of India has invited the public to suggest a symbol for the Indian Rupee. Just as the Dollar is universally denoted by $‚ the government thinks that the Rupee should also have its own unique symbol that captures a sense of India’s history and culture.

ToI has put up a list of symbols for Rupee on their website and would present the top voted ones before the government. They also have an option through which people can suggest a different symbol.

You could also vote for one of those symbols or can also send in your suggestions. Personally, I prefer ‘ru’ written in Sanskrit/Hindi without a bar on top. Long time our currency had a symbol of its own.

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L, V and U Recessions

These are the types of recessions according to economists worldwide; i.e. L-shaped, V-shaped and U-shaped ones.

L-shape recession is a recession that goes down and then stays there for a long period of time without a recovery. It could last for 20 years like it happened in Japan. A V-shape recession goes down pretty fast and recovers in very less time. A U-shape recession goes down slowly and then stays there for a few years before recovering slowly. It could last anywhere from 2-10 years, like in the 70s in US where it lasted for 8 years.

Most of the times, it is the economic policy adopted by a government before recession, which determines what type of recession it is; where wrongly calibrated economic policies leading to L-shape recessions, the worst of all.

Indian Inflation Rate @ 0.44%

India’s WPI inflation rate fell to an recent low of 0.44% for the year ended March 7, 2009. What is more comforting is the fall in prices of food articles, which greatly eluded the public in the previous declines.

Quoting ToI, the higher base effect along with low demand in the economy is expected to keep inflation in negative territory for 5 to 6 months. This, if happened, will make us witness deflation after a very long time.

One thing that I noticed in WPI is the fall in jet fuel prices by 8%. With this it’s high time that the flight operators reduce their fuel surcharge which currently stands at more than 2000 rupees. And, I guess it would require an intervention from the government to reduce the fuel surcharge amount, which masquerades as ‘taxes’ to the government in flight booking receipts.

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Inflation dips further

India's WPI based inflation rate fell to a 7 year low of 2.43 percent for the year ended on 28 Feb 2009. However, this fall in inflation for the sixth straight week was largely because of the fall in prices of manufactured items like metals, machinery and textiles. Food items are still 8% costlier than what it used to be one year ago.

The inflation rate is expected to fall further. It is likely to reduce below 1% mark next week and closer to zero by end of March. Thus, the new financial year 2009-10 is likely to begin with negative inflation.

Experts say that, the negative inflation that would come is due a steep surge in commodity and fuel prices in the corresponding months last year, which they call high base effect. Once this high base effect wanes in later months of 2009, inflation may enter into a positive territory.

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RBI cuts repo and reverse repo rates

The Reserve Bank of India lowered its Repo Rate and Reverse Repo Rate by 50 basis points to 5% and 3.5% respectively, with immediate effect. The Repo Rate is the rate at which RBI lends money to banks and the Reverse Repo Rate is the rate at which banks park funds with RBI.

This move will help RBI to maintain enough money in the economy as it will allow banks to reduce their interest rates on various loans, thereby making credit available easily to the population, at lower interest rates.

The inflation rate, which is already low, would come down further with the rate cut. Meanwhile, the central bank has asked banks to monitor their loans and assets quality as concerns grow over non-performing assets in the banking system.

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India’s GDP growth slipped to 5.3% in the third quarter

India’s GDP growth slipped to 5.3% in the third quarter (October ~ December 2008) of the financial year.

There were speculations that India would beat China in the third quarter where the latter initially clocked 6.8% GDP growth in the same time period. With that not happened, the message that could have been sent to the investor community that India being the fastest growing big economy didn’t materialize.

Government cuts excise duty and service tax

The Government of India has reduced excise duty and service tax by 2 percent in its Interim Budget. The general excise duty has been reduced from 10 percent to 8 percent while service tax has been slashed from 12 percent to 10 percent.

The service tax cut will have a profound impact, both on people as well as on government, as it is levied on almost all services that we exercise in our day today lives, right from eating out in a restaurant, to watching a movie, to the charges on services given by various institutions such as banks, etc. For the government, the implications will be of Rs. 28000 crore.

"The measures will lead to revenue loss of Rs 13,000 crore in service tax, Rs 8,500 crore in excise duty and Rs 6,600 crore in customs duty" says Central Board of Excise and Customs Chairman P C Jha.

Even though tax cuts are inevitable in a recession hit economy, I wonder how much we can have of these as the government’s revenues are taking huge blows while giving away these. With the UPA government in the brink of completing its term, the next government is definitely going to bear the brunt of these.

The cut will be effective from midnight of Tuesday, 24th February 2009.

Highlights of India's Interim Budget

Here are the key points of Pranab Mukherjee's interim budget.

> Economy grew at 9% for 3rd straight year
> Per capita income grew 7.4% during UPA regime
> Farm growth at 3.7% in last 4 years
> Foreign trade at 35.5% of GDP during 2007-08
> Agriculture growth outlook for 2009 looks encouraging
> Growth rate of exports down to 17.1% in 9 months
> India second fastest growing economy in the world
> Outlook for 2009 encouraging if rainfall normal
> Record FDI of $32.4 billion in 2008-09
> Govt may consider additional fiscal measures in budget
> Need to accelerate pace of policy reforms
> Govt to expand employment generation schemes
> Planned allocation for agriculture up by 300% between 2004-09
> MSP for paddy increased to Rs 900 per quintal in 08-09
> Farmers' debt waiver of Rs 65300 crore till now
> Outlay for higher education rose 900% in 11th 5-year-plan
> State-run PSU profits up 72% to Rs 91,000 crore in 08-09
> 55 loss-making PSUs against 73 when UPA took over
> Have taken steps to deepen, widen securities market
> Revenue deficit seen at 4.4% vs 1% earlier
> Fiscal deficit at 6% of GDP vs 2.5% in the Budget Estimate
> Infrastructure spending to be 9% of GDP by 2014
Courtesy: NDTV

The full text of Pranab Mukherjee's budget speech is available here.

Govt. gives Rs. 3800 crore to 3 banks to raise capital adequacy

The Government of India has announced a Rs. 3800 crore (Rs. 38 billion) fund infusion into state run banks, UCO Bank, Central Bank of India and Vijaya Bank to increase their capital adequacy.

Under the recapitalization package, Central Bank of India will get Rs 1,400 crore, while UCO Bank and Vijaya Bank will get Rs 1,200 crore each, said home minister P. Chidambaram. He added that the infusion will be done in two steps, where the first will be in the current fiscal year and remaining in financial year 2009~10. The amount will form a part of Tier I Capital and adding the infusion will increase the government holding in the three state-run banks.

In the first stage, UCO Bank will get Rs 450 crore, while Central Bank of India and Vijaya Bank will get Rs 700 and Rs 500 crore, respectively. This will help the banks to raise their capital adequacy over 12%, much above the Basel II norms of 9%.

Lessons from the sub-prime crisis

On Tuesday, the US senate passed the $819 billion economic stimulus bill, the second of the rescue package for the drowning US economy. Other governments have also come up with/are coming up with such measures to counter the financial crisis.

Even while issuing such packages, neither the US senate nor the other governments across the world can say with certainty that the financial crisis will be harnessed with these. Such is the size of the crisis and one might wonder how can we ensure that a crisis like this won’t happen again? What are the lessons learnt from the financial crisis?

In the case of sub-prime securities, risks were often under-estimated due in part to product complexity and over-reliance on quantitative analysis, including by rating agencies. Thus early detection and cure, which would have reduced the spill over effects of the crisis, didn’t happen in this case. Financial institutions were trying to cover up their losses till the last moment. The failed ones got uprooted in no time.

A major factor that contributed to the crisis is the use of standard risk assessment models used by risk management professionals by which they underestimated the systematic nature of risks. To put it in simple words, if everyone uses the same techniques, every one will be affected by the same issue. Independent assessment of risks using custom developed models would be one of the key lessons to be learnt from the crisis.

Derived from, Financial Risk Management: Lessons from the Current Crisis ... So Far

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India could soon beat China in GDP growth rate

The current global economic decline and a sharp fall in an export dependant China’s GDP growth rate could make India the fastest growing among large economies, at least for a quarter. China’s GDP growth rate was 6.8% during October ~ December 2008 quarter, well with in India’s reach.

ToI says,

If India achieves a better growth rate than China even for one quarter, the message will go across to the world and help India in wooing foreign capital, waiting to chase growth stories.

The Indian economists are hopeful because of the fact that China’s export constitutes 37% of its economy against 13% in the case of India; which would make India suffer less. India had achieved 7.9% and 7.6% growth in April ~ June and July ~ September quarters, according to provisional numbers and it is expected that the softening of interest rates will stimulate demand and ensure a faster growth rate than China for the quarter October ~ December 2008.

More news here.

Rise in NRI remittances to India

Despite economic recession, Indians working abroad had sent a record $40 billion as remittances to India in just 9 months of calendar year 2008. As the last quarter is a festival period, the total remittances for the year may even exceed $50 billion. This would be way ahead of World Bank’s prediction of $30 billion for India in 2008.

In 2007, with $27 billion as remittances, India was placed as the number one recipient of inward remittances globally by World Bank, with China in close second ($25.7 billion). And the story would be no different this year as well.

Inward remittances (unlike FII) are considered ‘sticky’ as this money is sent to India primarily for savings and family spending, and hence would remain in the economy. Thus it plays a major part in boosting the economy, in particular, during the ongoing recession. Hence, as a policy measure, government is also promoting NRI remittances through higher interest rates on NRI deposits. This could offset the FII outflow to some extent and thus could reduce the dependence of the economy on FII money.

Even though the recession is progressing, remittances had not/may not fall due to the following reasons.

1. The fear of job loss forces people to save more, especially in the safer Indian financial markets
2. Rise in rupee dollar exchange rate would fetch more rupee than ever when transferred to India
3. Rise in interest rates of FCNR and NRE deposits

More details here.

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