Citizens Financial News

candidates need to have their pockets stuffed with cash, as in seriously stuffed. The poll game gets real when stakes are high, such as Lok Sabha elections. But wait.

Crypto-related phishing attacks have become “rampant” in South Korea, a report has claimed, with a top financial regulator set to act.

Aadhaar, UPI, and Fastag. A Nasscom report in February 2024 had stated that DPI could help India become an $8-trillion economy by 2030. The economic value added by DPI could increase to between 2.9% and 4.2% of GDP by 2030, from 0.9% in 2022, it said.

Question: As the new financial year has commenced, kindly guide us on the requirement for submission of Forms 15G & 15H by the taxpayers to banks. Who are the eligible taxpayers to submit the said forms? Further, what are the applicable deadlines for submitting these forms?

My mother is a senior citizen. She has some fixed deposits with a bank and had earned interest of ₹3.30 lakh, which crossed the income tax exemption limit of ₹3 lakh. So she deposited Rs.45,000 in the Senior Citizen Saving Scheme (SCSS) to avail of benefits under Section 80C. She had furnished a 15G form to the bank for no tax deduction at source. But the bank has deducted tax @ 20% on interest as she does not have PAN. The bank has advised us to file her ITR to claim the refund. Can the bank not accept 80C proof and not deduct tax? What should we do to get the amount back? She does not have a PAN card. Can she file the return without a PAN card?

Binance founder Changpeng Zhao was ordered to spend four months in prison for failures that allowed cybercriminals and terrorist groups to freely trade on the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.

₹7.5 trillion on education every year. There are frequent calls to double this number if the education system is to be fixed. Overcoming the myriad problems in areas such as education, health, nutrition, safety, justice and social protection needs more than higher public spending.

Latest Punjab National Bank FD rates After revision, the bank offers FD interest rates between 3.50% to 7.25% for regular citizens. For senior citizens, the bank offers between 4% to 7.75% and for super senior citizens, the bank offers between 4.30% to 8.05%.

China, India and religious affinities, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Wednesday as he appealed for cohesion in his last major speech before stepping down from the leadership of the prosperous city-state in two weeks. «Social cohesion is important and race, language, and religion are traditional fault lines that will never go away for Singapore. While huge efforts have been made to build a shared Singaporean identity, the nation will always be subject to external forces that pull different segments of its population in different directions,» Lee said as he delivered the keynote address at the May Day Rally. «We cannot disavow our diverse ethnic roots and religious affinities — Chinese Singaporeans with China, Indian Singaporeans with their various ancestral homes in India, Malay Singaporeans with the rest of our region, and with the global Muslim Ummah,» Lee said impressing on the citizens of prosperous island state nestled in the heart of Southeast Asia.

Bomb Threat In Delhi Schools LIVE: Multiple schools in Delhi-NCR received bomb threats via email on Monday, warning them of bombs on their premises, news agency ANI reported. Police have initiated search operations following the alerts. Initial investigations suggest multiple Delhi schools have received similar emails of bomb threats.

India’s rapid economic growth and increasingly complex social and public challenges underscore the need for robust public-policy education. However, public policy programmes fall short of adequately preparing the next generation of policymakers, civil servants and engaged citizens. Traditionally, public policy education in India has been confined to post-graduate degree programmes, often offered in isolation from the real-world complexities that policymakers face.

Sebi) on Tuesday approved a proposal to increase participation from non-resident Indians (NRIs) and Overseas citizens of India (OCIs) through the foreign portfolio investor(FPI) route in local markets. The board also cleared a proposal to simplify norms for passive schemes of domestic mutual funds allowing exposure to securities of group companies of the sponsor.

Sam Pitroda, a yesteryear technocrat, recently rattled the beehive after he suggested India should consider inheritance tax as a means of income redistribution. Even in the US, the super-rich avoid giving back by setting up tax-free trust funds for inheritance. In India, where tax evasion is both endemic and high, tax harvesting for distribution of wealth can only come from a highly incentivised low-tax regime with high volumes of taxpayers, for whom gains from paying up outweigh pains of evasion. In a 2001 IMF paper, 'Tax Policy for Developing Countries', Vito Tanzi and Howell Zee wrote, '...the most prevalent forms of incentives found in developing countries tend to be the least meritorious… personal income taxes have been contributing very little to total tax revenue in many developing countries'. More than two decades later, this is still true. Worse, personal income-taxpayers in India live in an abnormal environment of taxation where they get next to nothing for compliance and good citizenry. Sure, it can be argued that they get roads, utilities and other infra. But these are delivered to all citizens, including those who systematically evade taxes, giving honest taxpayers only the advantage of a good conscience.

The article goes to great lengths to explain why the central incidents — involving the alleged assassination attempt of a Khalistan advocate in the US and murder of another in Canada — did not lead to public censure of India by the US. That India today is geopolitically and commercially important to the US, and like Saudi Arabia, it got a free pass from the Americans because they are, at least at present, playing on the same team. Where the article loses me, however, is in its linking the issue of extrajudicial killings with what it sees as the rise of 'deepening authoritarianism' in India. Killing dissidents, activists and journalists on foreign soil is chilling. And jailing them in a constitutionally democratic country is, indeed, a sign of creeping authoritarianism. But surgically targeting those deemed a credible threat to national security is what the US and its allies have been doing for decades.

Morality, good conduct, is the foundation of sadhana, spiritual practice. It is not the culminating point of the spiritual march. Sadhana, at its very start, requires mental equilibrium. This sort of mental harmony may also be termed morality. People often say, 'I follow neither a religion nor rituals; I abide by truth; I harm nobody, and I tell no lies. This is all that is necessary; nothing more need be done or learnt.' Morality is only an effort to lead a well-knit life. It cannot be said with any certainty that the moralist who has resisted the temptation of a bribe of ₹2 would also be able to resist the temptation of an offer of ₹2,00,000. Nevertheless, morality is not absolutely valueless in human life. It is an attribute of a good citizen. Morality depends on one's efforts to maintain a balance regarding time, place and person, and, therefore, there may be differences in moral code. But its ultimate end is the attainment of Supreme Bliss and, therefore, there should not be a possibility of any imperfections of relativity. It cannot be said that the ultimate aim of human life is not to commit theft; what is desirable is elimination of the tendency to commit theft.

Insurance companies can no longer refuse to sell health cover to citizens above the age of 65 years. However, for a senior citizen buying insurance for the first-time, it will still not be easy due to the high premiums and the need for a medical check-up for all pre-existing conditions, explains Saikat Neogi

NPS (National Pension System) is an easy-to-invest, tax-efficient retirement scheme. Under the NPS scheme, you and your employer both can contribute to build a corpus for your post-retirement years, ensuring your social security and welfare.

5 Money Changes in May 2024: Two major banks, ICICI Bank and YES Bank, are set to revise their charges for savings accounts from May 1. YES Bank and IDFC First Bank credit card holders will have to shell out extra 1% fee now on all utility bill payments. In the fixed deposit space, HDFC Bank will end its special FD offer for senior citizens on May 10.

RAW) chief Samant Goel, who has been named in a Washington Post report on alleged assasination bid on Khalistani terrorist and US citizen Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, had played a key role in Balakot and Uri strikes on Pakistan by Indian forces. In a report on Monday, Washington Post had claimed that one Vikram Yadav, an RAW officer, had hired a hit team to kill Pannun. An indictment filed in a Manhattan court in November last year mentioned an unnamed Indian government official, referred to as 'CC-1', who allegedly hired one Nikhil Gupta to get Pannun assassinated. The Washington Post report claims that Goel, who was the RAW head at that time, gave the final nod for the assassination attempt of Pannun, as per a report published by The Washington Post.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday urged all party candidates to carry a copy of the Constitution with them during nominations, public meetings and outreach programmes, and tell the people that as long as the Congress is there, let alone the BJP, no power in the world can snatch away the Constitution. The former Congress chief has been carrying a copy of the Constitution in his public meetings. He did so in Gujarat's Patan and Chhattisgarh's Bilaspur on Monday and in Madhya Pradesh's Bhind on Tuesday. «A boon for the poor, respect for the deprived and pride of every citizen — our Constitution! I request all Congress candidates and leaders to keep the sacred Constitution with them during nominations, meetings, speeches and public outreach,» Gandhi said in a post in Hindi on X. «Announce it in every village and every street that as long as the Congress is there, let alone BJP, no power in the world can snatch away the Constitution of India,» the former Congress chief said.

Since so much of my work lies at the intersection of law and technology, I’m always interested in theories of governance. If I can understand how governance works, I believe I will be better informed as to how technology can be used to make it more effective. Which is why, ever since I heard that it was being written, I’ve been waiting to read Karthik Muralidharan’s tome, Accelerating India’s Development.