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 Senior Citizen Savings Scheme (SCSS): Eligibility, Interest Rate & Benefits. Senior Citizens Savings Scheme (SCSS) is a government-backed savings instrument offered to Indian residents aged over 60 years.  The deposit matures after 5 years from the date of account opening but can be extended once by an additional 3 years. The SCSS interest rate for April to June 2020 has been set at 7.4%. This is the highest interest rate among the various small savings schemes in India.   SCSS is available through Public / Private sector banks and India Post Offices. Being a government-backed savings instrument, the terms and conditions applicable to the SCSS are the same, regardless of the bank/ post office you invest through. Senior Citizens Savings Scheme Interest Rates As of  April 2020, the interest rate available on the SCSS account is 7.4% per annum for the first quarter (April to June) of the financial year 2020-2021. This rate of interest is reviewed quarterly by ...

Understanding the Sovereign Gold Bond Scheme Sovereign Gold Bonds will be denominated in the multiples of a gram of gold with the minimum unit of 1 gram. The interest for the gold bonds will be 2.50% per annum which is payable semi-annually on the nominal value. The tenure of the bond will be for a period of 8 years with an exit option available in the 5th, 6th and 7th year on the dates of interest payment. The maximum limit of gold which can be subscribed by an individual is 4 kg for, 4 kg for a Hindu-Undivided Family and 20 kg for trusts and other similar entities. If the gold bonds are co-owned, the limit of investment will be 4kg which will be applied to the first applicant only. The gold bonds will be issued as stocks under the Government Security Act, 2006. The investors will also be given a Holding Certificate for the same. Gold in India is considered auspicious and its demand does not stop at its market value. The precious metal is bought on auspicious occasions as an investmen...

  What is Sovereign Gold Bond (SGB)? Who is the issuer? SGBs are government securities denominated in grams of gold. They are substitutes for holding physical gold. Investors have to pay the issue price in cash and the bonds will be redeemed in cash on maturity. The Bond is issued by Reserve Bank on behalf of Government of India. 2. Why should I buy SGB rather than physical gold? What are the benefits? The quantity of gold for which the investor pays is protected, since he receives the ongoing market price at the time of redemption/ premature redemption. The SGB offers a superior alternative to holding gold in physical form. The risks and costs of storage are eliminated. Investors are assured of the market value of gold at the time of maturity and periodical interest. SGB is free from issues like making charges and purity in the case of gold in jewellery form. The bonds are held in the books of the RBI or in demat form eliminating risk of loss of scrip etc. 3. Are there any risks i...

 *Banks to levy charges on transactions from November 1, 2020:* Customers in some banks will now have to start paying fees for deposit and withdrawal of money. As per reports, Bank of Baroda will start charging its customers for transactions beyond the prescribed limits from November 1. Names of other banks like Bank of India, PNB, Axis Bank and Central Bank are also emerging in reports, but they are yet to take a final call on the matter. As per reports, some of these transaction charges will kick in from November 1. It is being said that withdrawals three times in a month will be free but after that a withdrawal transaction charge will be levied at a flat fee of Rs 150. Similarly, deposits three times in a month will be free but thereafter a charge of Rs 40 will be levied on each transaction. For CC, present and overdraft accounts:  • Day deposit up to one lakh – free • If there’s a couple of lakh – one rupee cost on minimal one thousand rupees (minimal 50 rupees and most 20...

Customers in some banks will now have to start paying fees for deposit and withdrawal of money. As per reports, Bank of Baroda will start charging its customers for transactions beyond the prescribed limits from November 1. Names of other banks like Bank of India, PNB, Axis Bank and Central Bank are also emerging in reports, but they are yet to take a final call on the matter. As per reports, some of these transaction charges will kick in from November 1. It is being said that withdrawals three times in a month will be free but after that a withdrawal transaction charge will be levied at a flat fee of Rs 150. Similarly, deposits three times in a month will be free but thereafter a charge of Rs 40 will be levied on each transaction. For CC, present and overdraft accounts Day deposit up to one lakh – free If there’s a couple of lakh – one rupee cost on minimal one thousand rupees (minimal 50 rupees and most 20 thousand rupees) Withdrawing money thrice in a month – No cost From 4th time –...

 *Waiver of interest-on-interest scheme to be implemented by 5 November* The Reserve Bank has asked all lending institutions, including non-banking financial companies, to implement the waiver of interest on interest for loans up to Rs 2 crore for the six months moratorium period beginning March 1, 2020.  On October 23, the government had announced the scheme for grant of ex-gratia payment of difference between compound interest and simple interest for six months to borrowers in specified loan accounts, writes The Economic Times. The scheme mandates ex-gratia payment to certain categories of borrowers by way of crediting the difference between simple interest and compound interest for the period between March 1, 2020 to August 31, 2020 by respective lending institutions. The government had asked the lending institutions to complete the exercise of crediting the amount in the accounts of borrowers by November 5.  "All lending institutions are advised to be guided by the pr...

 Lessons from the plantations disaster The plantation companies scam hit the nation in late 1990's and once again our regulatory agencies were found napping and gullible Investors lost crores of rupees. What was the lure? What, after all, do they have?  Some land with some teak saplings still far from revenue-generating stage.  Their assets would never add up to more than a fraction of what they owe investors.  Indeed, many of these companies have closed shop and slunk away into the night. Many promoters are absconding. The plantation scheme story has all the attributes of the classic financial disaster: greed, dishonesty, incompetence, collapse, panic, late reaction from the authorities. HOW THEY DUPED YOU We all know about these schemes. They offered investors teak saplings, promising them a certain amount of teak after 20 to 30 years. The companies said they would sell the teak and give investors the money at the end of the maturity period.  The yearly return...

The NSEL scam had hit the financial community hard and raised questions on the governance of exchanges and brokers and the concept of a commodity exchange itself. The newspaper headlines then were mostly relating to NSEL scam and it's estimated scale of Rs. 4,000 crores to Rs. 6,000 crores.  Many people who invested in e-gold, e-silver and ETF's are worried about their hard earned money and what will happen to it. Even those who trade in the commodities market are fearing a shut down. So what is the NSEL scam all about? NSEL stands for National Spot Exchange Limited and is owned by Financial Technologies which also owns the MCX. NSEL was operating unregulated as it didn't come under the scrutiny of the Forwards Market Commission (FMC) because of it being a Spot market. The whole fiasco was on the trading of Agri-Commodity products on NSEL. Contracts of T+2, T+3,... T+35 were launched when as per laws a spot exchange cannot launch contracts having settlement greater than T+1...

 The Karvy Scam The story so far: On November 22, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) passed an ex parte ad interim order against Karvy Stock Broking, a Hyderabad-based firm, prohibiting it from taking new clients in respect of its stock broking activities. In view of the recent developments in the securities market, the National Stock Exchange issued an 11-point advisory to investors on how to keep stocks safe. How many customers does Karvy have? Karvy Stock Broking has more than a million retail broking customers and executes over two lakh transactions almost daily on behalf of its clients. The broking firm has been in the news for the last few weeks as some of its clients complained of delayed payouts. Typically, a person should get the money in his account on the third day of the transaction but some clients alleged that they did not receive the money after more than a week of executing the trades. Why was the payout delayed? The broking firm had initially said th...

  C R Bhansali’s web of deceit was elaborate. He had floated 133 companies to pull in funds and suck them out. Money came easy; he was inspiring with his grandiose plans, high interest rates and entry into mutual fund and banking. CRB’s meteoric rise in the early 90s coincided with the boom in the Non-Banking Finance Company (NBFC) sector. His fall in 1996 was equally fast. Forget investors, even credit-rating agencies didn’t see it coming. CARE, a leading agency, gave ‘AAA’ rating at a time when the company was going down. How to become chairman of top 3 finance companies Born in Rajasthan, raised in Kolkata, Bhansali became a dada in the financial capital — Mumbai — before he turned 40. First came the finance company (CRB Capital Markets), after which the mutual fund (CRB Mutual Fund) and CRB Share Custodial Services followed. Then he planned to get into banking, and he almost made it. He had a dream run from 1992 to 1996 collecting money from the public through fixed deposits, b...

 1. Vanishing Companies of 1998: It was an unusual year when over 600 companies vanished from the stock markets after raising money. The scam estimated to be worth Rs 800 crore came to light when Sebi was probing few companies which disappeared after raising money from the stock markets. In May 1998, it named 80 companies that had raised over Rs 330 crore. Later, it was found out that over 600 companies were under scrutiny. A Committee was set up to investigate which officially identified 238 listed companies, out of which 161 could be traced and 77 are still  in the list of vanishing companies. 2. Ketan Parekh Scam: The securities scam of 2001 that was estimated to be worth over Rs 1200 crore involved investor Ketan Parekh siphoning off a huge sum of money from the banks to invest in the market. The money was diverted to Parekh and his friends to either invest in the markets or pay up their dues. A joint-parliamentary committee in 2005 stated that Parekh received large sums o...