When Finance Minister, Mr Arun Jaitley, presented the NDA government’s first full year budget on 28th February 2015, I was one of the millions of Indians who sat glued to their television sets to catch the budget highlights first hand. To be honest, like most of individual tax payers out there, I was expecting a… Continue Reading
The literal meaning of Kisan Vikas Patra (KVP) is farmer development bond. This name is a misnomer because any individual could invest in this instrument and not only farmers. The proceeds of the bond may be utilized for the welfare of the farmers. This small savings instrument, in its earlier avatar, was quite popular because… Continue Reading
This time around the budget has many proposals which directly and indirectly impact the real estate market positively. If we take the direct tax proposals, it has many goodies for the middle class and the salaried. Even though premium housing has emerged as a niche segment, the bulk of the housing demand continues to come… Continue Reading
The real estate sector which has gone through the sluggish sales in last couple of years has got some good reasons to cheer now. Increase in deduction on home loan interest, tax pass-through status for REITs, proposal for 100 more cities, proposal for ‘home for all’ programme, easing of FDI norms in real estate –… Continue Reading
The first budget of the Narendra Modi Government is to be unveiled on the 10th of July. There are high expectations from various sectors of the economy that are looking forward to delivery of a promise by Mr. Modi on “Aaache Din”. The economy is passing through high inflation coupled with forecasts of a poor… Continue Reading
Remember ‘0% EMI’ schemes? Banks made money, manufacturers and merchants exhausted their inventory and consumers spent with gay abandon (for electronic goods and household items) until RBI played the party pooper. Although 0% EMI schemes were discontinued after RBI ban, the importance of the potent combination of ‘convenient credit’ coupled with flexible payment options, was… Continue Reading
Taking serious note of borrower un-friendly home loan schemes introduced by banks in association with developers/builders, RBI has advised banks to refrain from making upfront disbursal of home loans to the builders without linking the disbursal to various construction stages of housing project. These subvention schemes, popularly known as 80:20 or 75:25 schemes, had gathered… Continue Reading
Buying a home is considered both an investment as well as an act of fulfilling a dream of living in own house. From a financial perspective, home loan is considered a good debt because you get tax exemption on loan payments and at the same time your asset appreciates with time. Tax exemption on home… Continue Reading
The new year has begun on a positive note for those planning to take on new loan and also for those borrowers who are already paying EMI against their home loan or a car loan. The RBI just announced a repo rate cut by quarter per cent (0.25 per cent) and this is likely to… Continue Reading
At this time of steep hike in petrol price and heavy inflation, there is one good news to cheer about – the Reserve Bank of India has notified all the banks to stop charging penalty on foreclosure and pre-payment of home loan with floating interest rate with immediate effect. So far banks used to charge… Continue Reading