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Battery down? SMS to power mobile

Charging Station Stirred By Text Message To Drive Cellphone Use In Rural Areas

London: Out of battery? Just send a text! People living off-grid can now power their phones simply by sending a text message.
    A London-based company, Buffalo Grid, has introduced a solar-powered cellphone charging station that is activated by text message.
    A patchy or absent power grid poses a conundrum of problems for rural areas in the developing world, particularly in Africa and Asia, where the use of cellphones is rapidly rising.
    The company’s basic technology, which was recently trialled in Uganda, should help tackle this issue, ‘NewScientist’ reported.
    The battery extracts power from the solar panel using a technique called maximum power point tracking (MPPT). A 60-watt solar panel charges a battery.
    A solar panel’s power output is dictated by environmental conditions, such as temperature and the amount of sunlight, as well as the resistance of the circuits connected to it.
    MPPT monitors the conditions and changes the resistance to ensure the maximum possible power output at any given time.
    The innovation lies in how the stored power is released to charge a phone. A customer sends a text message, which in Uganda costs 110 shillings, to the device. Once the device receives the message, an LED above a socket on the battery lights up, indicating that it is ready to charge a phone.
    At the Konokoyi coffee cooperative in Uganda, each text message allows a phone to be charged for one and a half hours. A fully charged Buffalo Grid unit can last for three days, has up to 10 charging points and charges 30 to 50 phones a day.
    To bring the cost down further, Buffalo Grid hopes to coopt the cellphone network operators into subsidising power for charging the phones, or even making it free.
    “When you bring power to phones that do not have any, people will use them more,” said Buffalo Grid’s Daniel Becerra.
    “Instead of paying for the charge, people will spend more on airtime,” Becerra said. PTI

Paying Tax is not enough - Important Tax Check list for March 31st

Paying Tax is not enough -  Important Tax Check list for March 31st

Make all tax-saving investments before March 31 and file your return before July 31

With March 31 approaching, its time to check whether you have fulfilled all the tax-filing commitments. The important deadlines to remember are March 15 (the last date for paying advance tax), March 31 (for investing in tax-saving instruments), and July 31 (for filing tax returns). In case you miss the date, you can file the return before March 31, 2014. But you will be charged a penalty of 1 per cent of the taxable amount, for every month of delay.

HAVE YOU CHECKED YOUR FORM 26AS?

The form 26AS or the tax credit statement allows a permanent account number (PAN) holder to check various incomes reported under different sections. You can check this on income tax departments website www.incometaxindia.gov.in. Ensure that you include all reported incomes while filing your tax return. You can also check the Form 26AS on your banks website.

HAVE YOU MADE A LIST OF ALL YOUR TAXES DEDUCTED?
Compile a list of all your tax deducted at source (TDS) forms. The one you get from your employer is Form 16(A). There are other TDS forms, too. For instance, the one given by your bank, and shows the interest paid on your accounts and the tax deducted on the interest. In case the form 26AS is not reflecting the TDS, you should take it up with the organisation (which deducted your tax).

List down all your other incomes that do not reflect in Form 26AS such as interest incomes from bank accounts, any cash payments or cheque payments for which TDS has not been deducted. All this has to be filled in separately when you file your tax return.

This is relevant for those working as consultants and get a fee. If you get an income from rent, you should have proof of TDS for the rental income as well.

HAVE YOU EXHAUSTED ALL THE LIMITS FOR CLAIMING TAX EXEMPTION?
Check whether all tax benefits that are available have been utilised like Sec 80C, 80D, 24b, 80CCG and so on.

An income-tax assessee can invest up to Rs 1 lakh in various tax saving instruments such as Public Provident Fund, life insurance premium, equity-linked tax savings, mutual funds, repayment of home loan and so on. You can also claim tax deduction for health insurance premiums paid to the extent of Rs 15,000 for self, spouse and children and an additional Rs 15,000 for dependent parents, under Sec 80D. If parents are senior citizens, the limit is Rs 20,000.

If you have not completely used the deduction limits, you can still make the investment by March 31 even though you have already submitted proofs of the investment to your company and claim refund while filing returns.

Please ensure to complete all tax savings investments a tleast by 20^th of March, 2013.  In case you are making payment for investments by way of cheque, in most of the cases the cheque realization date will be considered as the effective  investment date.  Suppose you submitted your cheque for tax savings investments on 31^st March, 2013 but the cheque realized only on 2^nd April.  In this case you will loose the benefits of tax savings.  This rule applicable for most of the tax savings investments.  So don’t take risk and complete your investments now itself. 

Also, there is a miss understanding about the “TAX FREE BONDS” presently available for investments.  Please note that, these are Tax Free Bonds and not Tax Savings Bonds.  The income generated from these bonds are fully exempted from tax.   So, don’t invest in these bonds for tax savings purposes.   In case you wish to get a tax free income then only you need to invest in these bonds. 

Also, please note that, these bonds are not Infrastructuretax savings bonds.  The deduction under section 80CCF is not available for FY 2012-2013

HAVE YOU SUBMITTED THE PROOF FOR ALL YOUR TAX SAVING INVESTMENTS AND EXEMPTIONS TO YOUR OFFICE?

Submit the proof of your investment in the tax saving instruments to your office. Most companies ask for the proof by January or February so that they can show the details in the Form-16. Also, submit proof of childrens tuition fees paid or donations to any charitable organisation so that these can be accounted for in the Form-16. Again, if you have missed the deadline in your office, show the proof while filing the tax return.

HAVE YOU SUBMITTED YOUR HOME LOAN CERTIFICATE?
If you have availed of mortgage or home loan, then collect the certificate from your lender that shows the break-up of the interest and principal repayment, and submit the same in your office. In case of a second house, if the rental income is lower than the interest repayment, then that can be adjusted against your salary income or business income as loss, but not against capital gains.

HAVE YOU PAID ADVANCE TAX?
If you have capital gains from sale of property, then you must pay advance tax by March 15. If you have suffered any short-term or long-term capital loss, this can be offset against your capital gains during the year, thereby, reducing your tax liability.

HAVE YOU SUBMITTED PROOF FOR LTA, BILLS FOR TELEPHONE AND MEDICAL REIMBURSEMENT?
Submit proof of your travel such as air or rail tickets in order to claim your leave travel allowance (LTA). Also, submit all bills for telephone and medical reimbursement. If not you will have to pay tax on each of these. Just paying tax is not enough, you need to file tax returns also

Facility to exchange Mutilated Bank notes now available in all bank branches

The RBI has directed all banks to facilitate exchange of cut or mutilated bank notes with clean notes at all their branches. 

"The facility of exchange of cut/mutilated banknotes, in addition to soiled notes and issue of good quality clean banknotes/coins, should be made available at all bank branches including those of co-operative banks and RRBs," RBI said in a notification. Moreover, the central bank has asked banks to provide this facility to all member of the public without discrimination on all working days. 

However, if a bank branch is not able to immediately adjudicate cut or mutilated notes across the counter, it may accept and send such notes to the currency chest to which is it linked, and ensure that the tenderer receives the exchange value within a reasonable time. 

 This is a good move by the RBI as there a numerous such Indian currency notes which are with the general public, and cannot be used. Now with the conversion of the same, it could help many to obtain value of such respective denomination notes.

E-filing may be must for people with annual income above Rs 5 lakh

E-filing may be must for people with annual income above Rs 5 lakh

 

Taxpayers having an annual income of over Rs 5 lakh will be required to file their returns in electronic form, a senior Finance Ministry official said on Tuesday. Besides, the Finance Ministry is also making provisions for e-filing of Wealth Tax returns.

“Income tax returns for the group above Rs 5 lakh, all such returns will be e-filed. This is a move towards using technology so that the interface between Assessing Officer and assessee is minimised,” Revenue Secretary Sumit Bose said at a Ficci event here.

The government had last year introduced the system of e-filing of Income tax returns for assessees with annual income of Rs 10 lakh and above.

Section 14 of the Wealth-tax Act provides for furnishing of return of net wealth as on the valuation date in the prescribed form.

At present, certain documents and reports are required to be furnished along with the return of net wealth under the provisions of Wealth-tax Act read with the provisions of Wealth-tax Rules.

Sections 139C and 139D of the I-T Act contain provisions for facilitating filing of return of income in electronic form by certain class of income-tax assessees.

 

“In order to facilitate electronic filing of annexure- less return of net wealth, it is proposed to insert new sections 14A and 14B in the Wealth-tax Act on similar lines… The amendments will take effect from June 1, 2013,” said the Memorandum to the Finance Bill 2013.

 

Just wait for detailed guidelines from MOF

Lower gold prices lure buyers; India demand to pick up

Buying picked up from some Asian countries after gold retreated below USD 1,600 an ounce, and India's demand is expected to improve in April at the start of a new fiscal year, after the government held off from further curbs on gold inflows,

Buying picked up from some Asian countries after gold retreated below USD 1,600 an ounce, and India's demand is expected to improve in April at the start of a new fiscal year, after the government held off from further curbs on gold inflows.


Spot gold hovered around USD 1,580 an ounce on Friday, after falling 5 percent in February in its fifth month in the red, the metal's longest stretch of monthly declines in 16 years, as an improving economic picture dulled gold's safe-haven appeal.

As speculators exited gold, Asian users seized the opportunity to buy the material at cheaper prices.

"When prices are below USD 1,600, demand from jewellers has recovered a little, though investors are either selling or sitting on the sidelines," said Dick Poon, general manager of Heraeus Metals in Hong Kong.

The onshore gold prices in China, the world's second-largest gold consumer after India, stood at about USD 20 above spot gold, attracting bargain seekers.

"We see huge orders from China, which are even bigger than the size of buying before the Lunar New Year," said a Singapore-based dealer.

Demand from Indonesia was also robust, thanks to a stronger rupiah that kept domestic prices low.

"The amount of buying from Indonesia in February almost doubled from January," said the Singapore-based dealer.

In Hong Kong, a main conduit for gold flow into China, premiums on gold bars were little changed from a week earlier at USD 1.50- USD 1.80 an ounce over spot prices.

In Singapore, premiums were steady at USD 1.20 an ounce, but could rise next week as a result of higher demand in the region, dealers said.

A day after India unveiled its budget for the fiscal year to March 2014, which included no further measures to curb gold imports, buying was slow in the world's top gold consumer, but hopes were high it would pick up with the start of the new fiscal year next month.

"We are happy with the budget," said Bachhraj Bamalwa, chairman of the All India Gems and Jewellery Trade Federation from Kolkata.

"We were expecting something wrong to happen in the form of another hike in import or excise duty. Today is the first day after the budget, we are not expecting great sales in March due to the fiscal year end, but April sales should increase due to weddings."

WEEK AHEAD

Physical gold buyers are waiting to see whether withering investment demand in gold could drag prices to last week's low near USD 1,550 an ounce, which could trigger further purchases.