Month: May 2013

Cap on subsidised LPG cylinders

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Government of India has been providing subsidy on Domestic LPG purchased by Consumers. There has been a change in norms of supply of Domestic LPG effective 14th of September 2012. This was further modified effective 18th January 2013. The number of Domestic Cylinders for which Subsidy can be availed for has now been capped at 9 refills per LPG Connection. More details are given below.

FAQs regarding cap on subsidised LPG Cylinders

  1. What is Capping of LPG cylinder?
  2. How many subsidised cylinder I will get in current financial year 2013-14?
  3. After I consume all capped quantity am I eligible for subsidised cylinder?
  4. What will happen to my subsidised quota when I transfer my connection?
  5. Am I eligible for subsidised quota if my connection is blocked?
  6. In case of new connection what will be the eligibility of subsidised quota?
  7. How can I keep record of my consumption of cylinder?
  8. I do not want subsidised cylinder, is it possible?
  9. A re subsidised cylinders applicable for reticulated LPG customers?

Click Here for more details

Portal for Public Grievances

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The Department of Administrative Reforms And Public Grievances is the nodal agency to formulate policy guidelines for citizen-centric governance in the country. Redress of citizens’ grievances , being one of the most important initiatives of the department, DAR&PG formulates public grievance redress mechanisms for effective and timely redress / settlement of citizens’ grievances.

This is a Government of India Portal aimed at providing the citizens with a platform for redress of their grievances. If you have any grievance against any Government organization in the country, you may lodge your grievance here which will go to the Ministry/Department/State Government concerned for immediate redress.

The grievances arising out of Unsatisfactory response or No response from the Ministry/Department concerned will be taken up by the PG officers of DAR&PG who will take up the matter with the Ministry/Department concerned for close monitoring and expeditious redress.

If you have any Grievance against Central Govt. Ministries or Departments or State Govt. Departments, Click Here to enter  your Grievance. If there is a delay in settling your Grievance, even that can be handled by this website.

The draconian LBT explained

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Local Body Tax (LBT) is a draconian Act, especially with key words like ‘goods’, ‘dealer’, ‘business’ loosely defined in the legislature, giving enough scope for the administrators to stretch their imagination to fanciful limits to the common man’s harassment and dismay

At the time of introduction of VAT in 2005 the Government of Maharashtra had promised that Octroi would be removed and there will not be any additional tax burden on citizens but now they have introduced  the LBT. Thus, LBT is not a good system of tax collection suited for the 21st century, and when there are many other better options available with the government.

Your dabbawala gets your tiffin box daily to your office in Fort area from your house in Thane. As the financial year comes to an end, one fine day, after December, a LBT officer lands in your office instead of the dabbawala with a warrant to arrest you for having brought into the city limits the goods exceeding the prescribed turnover limits.

Another point against LBT is the cascading effect of LBT. Unlike excise or service tax or VAT, there is no concept of set-off or input credit.

Click Here to read the full article by ANANTHRAM RAO, partner at Borkar & Shenoy, Chartered Accountants

Pay legitimate Transfer Fees, not Donation

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PAY TRANSFER FEES AS PER LAW INSTEAD OF DONATING

The unlawful concept of ‘donation’, employed by the cooperative housing society’s managing committees, to facilitate the transfer of a flat by a CHS member, urgently need to be examined at length, points out GAJANAN KHERGAMKER

Each time, a cooperative housing society member wants to sell his property anywhere in Mumbai, he is bullied into paying up way beyond the officially ‘legal’ transfer fee of a maximum of Rs 25,000. The excess he pays ranges from Rs 5,000, in case of small societies to as high as a few lakhs of rupees, depending on the size, status and level of moral accountability of the society in question.
The cooperative housing societies and their managing committees, charging the fees, are spurred by a skewed sense of logic in their acts of demanding donations. “If a member is getting a good price for his flat, it’s because we’ve collectively maintained the society and the common amenities too. Why then, should the member be reluctant to ‘donate’ something for the society that he’s lived in for years? He pays only voluntarily and as a gesture of goodwill,” is the regular rejoinder of managing committee members ‘charging’ donation fees. Any argument, however illogical, is permissible in a democracy but only in the context of a debate and within socially-approved parameters. The managing committee members have even evolved ways to elbow outgoing members into paying up the excess. In several cases all over the city, society’s managing committee members refuse to provide the no-objection certificate for the purpose of sale and transfer to the outgoing member.

Click Here for the full article

Levy Cheque return charges only if customer is at fault

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RBI/2012-13/493
DPSS.CO.CHD.No. 2030/03.06.01/2012-2013

May 7, 2013

The Chairman and Managing Director / Chief Executive Officer
All Scheduled Commercial Banks including RRBs /Local Area Banks
Urban Co-operative Banks / State Co-operative Banks /
District Central Co-operative Banks

Madam / Dear Sir,

Delay in re-presentation of technical return cheques and levy of charges for such returns

As you are aware, banks are expected to indicate the timeline for realisation of local/outstation cheques in their Cheque Collection policy(CCP) and charges for cheque returns to be levied in an upfront manner with due prior notice to the customers as enumerated in RBI circulars no. DPSS.CO. (CHD) No. 873 / 03.09.01 / 2008-09 dated November 24, 2008 and DBOD.No.Dir.BC. 56 /13.03.00/2006-2007 dated February 2, 2007 respectively.

2. However, recently, instances have been brought to our notice where banks are (i) levying cheque return charges even in cases where customers have not been at fault in the return and (ii) delaying the re-presentation of the cheques which had been returned by the paying banks under technical reasons. Both of these issues result in unsatisfactory customer service.

3. It is, therefore, considered necessary to streamline the procedure followed by all banks in this regard. Accordingly, banks are advised to adhere to the following instructions with immediate effect:

1.                     Cheque return charges shall be levied only in cases where the customer is at fault and is responsible for such returns. The illustrative, but not exhaustive, list of returns, where the customers are not at fault are indicated in the annex.

2.                     Cheques that need to be re-presented without any recourse to the payee, shall be made in the immediate next presentation clearing not later than 24 hours(excluding holidays) with due notification to the customers of such re-presentation through SMS alert, email etc.

4. Banks are accordingly advised to reframe their CCPs to include the procedures indicated in paragraph 3(i) and 3(ii) above, and may note to give publicity to their revised CCPs for better customer service and dissemination of information.

5. The above instructions are issued under Section 18 of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007 (Act 51 of 2007).

6. Please acknowledge receipt and confirm compliance.

Yours faithfully,

(Vijay Chugh)
Chief General Manager

Annex

Illustrative but not exhaustive list of objections where customers are not at fault

(Applicable for Instrument and Image-based Cheque Clearing as detailed in Annexure D to Uniform Regulations and Rules for Bankers’ Clearing Houses)

Code No.

Reason for Return

33

 Instrument mutilated; requires bank’s guarantee

35

 Clearing House stamp / date required

36

 Wrongly delivered / not drawn on us

37

 Present in proper zone

38

 Instrument contains extraneous matter

39

 Image not clear; present again with paper

40

 Present with document

41

 Item listed twice

42

 Paper not received

60

 Crossed to two banks

61

 Crossing stamp not cancelled

62

 Clearing stamp not cancelled

63

 Instrument specially crossed to another bank

67

 Payee’s endorsement irregular / requires collecting bank’s confirmation

68

 Endorsement by mark / thumb impression requires attestation by Magistrate with seal

70

 Advice not received

71

 Amount / Name differs on advice

72

 Drawee bank’s fund with sponsor bank insufficient(applicable to sub-members)

73

 Payee’s separate discharge to bank required

74

 Not payable till 1st proximo

75

 Pay order requires counter signature

76

 Required information not legible / correct

80

 Bank’s certificate ambiguous / incomplete / required

81

 Draft lost by issuing office; confirmation required from issuing office

82

 Bank / Branch blocked

83

 Digital Certificate validation failure

84

 Other reasons-connectivity failure

87

 ‘Payee’s a/c Credited’ – Stamp required

92

 Bank excluded

RTI application through designated post office

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You can file RTI application through designated post office as well

In case you are filing your RTI application to any of the central government departments, just head to the designated Post Office where the central assistant Public Information Officer (CAPIO) is duty bound to not only accept but also help you out in filing the application

Recently, I filed a Right to Information (RTI) application to the union home ministry and the central public works department (CPWD) to get information on the new post-retirement home of Pratibha Patil (after she abandoned her palatial one which was on 2.6 lakh odd sq ft on prime defence land at Khadki in Pune, after a series of articles in Moneylife. Her new one is a modest one – an existing government bungalow of around 2,500 sq ft, which is being refurbished. Apparently, though, it has been extended to 6,000 sq ft as per newspaper reports. I wanted to have details of that through RTI, which I am still awaiting.

 

Instead of sending my RTI application through courier by attaching the Indian Postal Order (IPO), (last time I had quite stupidly made a DD of Rs10, which cost me Rs35 to make it, when I had sent my RTI to the Rashtrapati Bhavan). Therefore, this time I decided to try out the Post Office.

 

I headed for the Pune General Post Office (GPO). Remember that you may not be able to file your RTI in each post office. You need to ask the post office headquarters of your village/ town/ city to find out in which branch the assistant central public information officer (ACPIO) has been designated under the RTI Act. The Department of Post (DoP) has designated around 4,707 ACPIOs across the country as of 30 June 2011.The numbers may have increased by now.

 Click Here for more details