Budget 2010 India - Changes that would benefit individual tax payers

Following are the changes that would benefit the salaried class/ individual tax payers.


Direct Taxes


Income tax slabs for individual taxpayers to be as follows
Income upto Rs 1.6 lakh Nil
Income above Rs 1.6 lakh and upto Rs. 5 lakh 10 per cent
Income above Rs.5 lakh and upto Rs. 8 lakh 20 per cent
Income above Rs. 8 lakh 30 per cent


Deduction of an additional amount of Rs. 20,000 allowed, over and above the existing limit of Rs.1 lakh on tax savings, for investment in long-term infrastructure bonds as notified by the Central Government


Besides contributions to health insurance schemes which is currently allowed as a deduction under the Income-tax Act, contributions to the Central Government Health Scheme also allowed as a deduction under the same provision

Spark Lines on NSE website

Just got a glimpse of sparklines in the NSE website.

http://nseindia.com/content/equities/niftysparks.htm

This page would help investors/traders to have a quick glimpse of the index stocks and this is available for most of the key NIFTY indices (like Junior Nifty, CNX IT, Bank Nifty, Nifty Midcap 50).

Crisp graphical representation of price movement, details of price changes and color coding of stocks nearing 52 week high /low & much more are presented in a crisp and adorable manner.

You can have a look at it when free.! I find this new page exciting!

ideasmoney featured on FEMINA india Feb 10 2010 issue

ideasmoney.blogspot.com has been featured in Feb 10 India edition of femina under " Money Resolutions 2010" -> Blog my money.

Investing ( trading) when you are in debt trap

Recently, got a mail from a person who is struggling to pay his EMIs. The person had withdrawn cash from a credit card when his variable pay got down and has a huge outstanding amount on his credit card.

When his company announced an increment this year, the person was keen to invest the incremental income in the stock market , to multiply the money quickly to pay off his credit card dues.

I was shocked on reading this mail. When you are in a deep debt trap, you should try to get out of it first. In fact credit card cash withdrawal should be the last mode you should look into.

When you are in a debt trap, one should try to use any excess or surplus cash to pay of the debt. Investing (Trading!) with borrowed money or when you are in deep debt trap would potentially lead you to more trouble.

One should always try to live within the means and borrow within the means too.!

Analysing 2009 IPOs

Here is an analysis of the IPOs of 2009 ( Source data: - NSE web site).

1. There were 21 IPOs in 2009. ( 20 issues after stability returned and only 1 during the time of uncertainity - Edserv softsystems in Feb) . IPOs are highly dependant on market sentiments driven and this fact proves that.

2. Edserv systems has given a good return and this after getting only a CARE rating of 1!!. So, solely depending on the rating and market sentiments may not help.

3. only 12 out of the 21 IPOS are trading in positive territory as of 21 Jan (Adani and Astec , just above the issue price)

4. All issues that were given a grading of 4 ( 6 issues) by rating agencies are trading in the positive zone.

Grade 3 's - 2 in positive zone out of 8.

Grade 2's - 3 in positive zone out of 4.

Grade 1 's - 1 in positive zone out of 2.

So, there has been no correlation between grading by the agencies and the returns except for the fact that all the issues graded four are in positive zone ( May be the sample is too small :-)).

5. Power and Real estate IPOS have not given any significant return in spite of the hype.(including PSU -NHPC).

We can infer that not all IPOs are money making engines for retail investors. All issues need to be analyzed carefully before you throw in your money. Just depending on a broker's recommendation or a tip or GMP ( grey market premium) or an article on a blog like this :-) wouldn't help. The basic rule is- if you don't understand about an issue or if you are not convinced what you want out of investing in an IPO, Please don't invest. Do your thorough research before you invest your hard earned money.