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CBDT Chairperson Anita Kapur said she would like to bust the myth and “fear psychosis” that once people file their tax returns, they automatically come on the radar of the taxman and then they are tracked.

Ms Kapur, in an interview to PTI, said in cases of neatly filed electronic income tax returns (ITRs), the department has set a deadline of six months for refunds to be generated and sent to the taxpayer.

“We tell the taxpayers that in e-file returns we take a maximum of six months to process it if you have a clean return and no TDS mis-match. But then there is a misinformation campaign that we hold refunds. I will say we don’t hold refunds for small taxpayers,” said the chief of CBDT, the apex policymaking body of the I-T department.

“For large taxpayers, if it is a scrutiny case, then we have to hold it as per law till the scrutiny assessment is over but not for small taxpayers if their ITRs are all correct,” she said.

“We are not interested in holding up small returns.”

Ms Kapur said her second area of concern over which she would like to put the record straight is the version that taxman puts the cases of small and middle-category taxpayers on the scrutiny list which entails submission of additional documents and visits to the assessing I-T officer.

Citing an example, she said no tax inspector can just go to a person, like a fruit-seller, and say he/she has to file his I-T return or that his/her return is going to be scrutinized.

“We are told that people are scared that once tax department knows about them after they have done filing (of ITR) then they are tracked and followed and they stay on the radar of the I-T department. We want to tell the taxpayers that only in less than one per cent cases you will be asked to come to the tax department for scrutiny of your case.”

“And even this less than one per cent category is not discretionary selection by the assessing officer. It is a computer-based programme where risk parameters are fed in, algorithm is developed, and based on that cases get selected,” she said.

The CBDT chief said that when these parameters are built in, they are done in a manner that “in fact, small taxpayers don’t get selected and these parameters are to detect big tax evasion”.

“So, small taxpayers should not be scared of entering the department, doing e-filing and even manual filing,” she said.

This kind of a fear psychosis, Ms Kapur said, is totally “unwarranted”.

“Now, when we are holding out this assurance to you that only less than one per cent cases I am going to scrutinize then I am not looking at small taxpayer. The tax evasion probability of a small taxpayer is less and hence he is not selected for scrutiny.”

“So, if a small taxpayer is willingly paying his taxes, we assume that why would he want to evade taxes? For us, it’s a good situation. This is one way of doing things for the small taxpayer,” she added.

The US-based tech giant Apple will unveil its latest iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus in India on October 16.

These phones were seized recently from young people in their late 20s who had come from Hong Kong and Singapore on separate flights, officials said.

Acting on intelligence inputs, customs officials intercepted them and seized the iPhones.

“All of them were carrying iPhone 6S and 6S Plus in their baggage. We have seized 182 devices from them,” said Vinayak Azaad, Additional Commissioner, Customs, at the IGI airport.

Some of the youths were offered money to smuggle in the devices, the official said.

The US-based tech giant Apple will unveil its latest iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus in India on October 16.

The company has not disclosed the price of its new products for the Indian market.

Apple had sold over 13 million units of these phones on the first three days of the launch on September 25.

The new iPhone models were available for sale on September 25 across the US, the UK, Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, Puerto Rico and Singapore.

Incidentally, the seizure has been affected from the sector, that comprises Hong Kong and Singapore, infamous for gold smuggling.

“We maintain strict vigil on flights coming from Hong Kong, Singapore and other western and South Asian countries for gold smuggling. The officials have been sensitised on the possibility of smuggling of iPhones after the latest seizure,” Mr Azaad said.

He said the youths were detained and questioned to ascertain the end-use of the products to help unearth organised syndicates which might be behind it.

“There are chances of smuggling of iPhone 6S and 6S Plus ahead of their launch which is still 12 days away,” the official said.

File Photo: UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav

Mr Yadav has requested to declare Jhansi-Khajuraho, Lipulekh-Bhind and Dohri Ghat-Azamgarh-Jaunpur-Allahabad routes as national highways.

“The CM has written a letter to Union Surface Transport Nitin Gadkari in this regard,” an official spokesman said in a statement issued in Lucknow.

He said that widening of these routes would help in development of infrastructure facilities and removing bakwardness.

The Chief Minister has referred to a letter written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 8 in which it was requested to declare four important routes as national highways and develop them as four lane.

Indrani Mukerjea was arrested in August and has been lodged at Mumbai jail since September 7.

On Friday afternoon, Ms Mukerjea, 43 — a former media executive arrested in August for allegedly murdering her daughter Sheena Bora three years ago — collapsed after allegedly swallowing a combination of pills for depression and epilepsy.

But doctors today said that lab reports show there was no overdose. They told reporters that she is conscious now. “Her condition is good, we will observe her for 24 to 48 hours and then discharge her,” said TP Lahane, dean of JJ Hospital.

While a hospital lab said there were signs of an attempted overdose, results from a forensic lab said the opposite, causing significant confusion.  As it is, jail officials are unable to explain how Ms Mukerjea, who had been prescribed pills after being arrested, had managed to accrue the stash that led to her collapse.

Ms Mukerjea, who is married to former media mogul Peter Mukerjea, is charged with killing her daughter along with an ex-husband, Sanjeev Khanna, and a former driver. She founded broadcasting group INX Media with Mr Mukerjea in 2007.

“Some trains have been cancelled, some re-scheduled and some regulated between Ambala Cantonment and Chandigarh railway station due to non-interlocking work between the two stations,” officials said.

The trains have been cancelled, re-scheduled and regulated for six hours, the officials said.

The trains which stands cancelled, included Himalayan Queen, Ekta Express, Shatabdi Express and Jan Shatabdi Express.

While 20 trains have been re-scheduled, seven trains have been regulated passing through Ambala Cantonment junction, officials said.

These included Amritsar-Badra Express, Kalka-Bandra Express, Chandigarh-Jaipur Intercity, Amritsar-New Delhi Express, Shan-e-Punjab, Pathankot-New Delhi Express and Saharsa-Amritsar Express, the officials said.

In view of the work going on between the two stations, many commuters are facing hardship.

“We want a total repoll in all booths in both Bidhannagar and Asansol corporations in view of the rampant corrupt practices and violence,” CPI(M) politburo member Mohd Salim said in Kolkata.

“The whole election process has been rendered a farce. The State Election Commission has the responsibility to hold the election in free and fair manner, but it has failed in its duty,” Salim said.

He also demanded re-election at Bally under Howrah Municipal Corporation.

“The Left Front will sit together and decide on the next course of action,” he said when asked what the Front would do if the SEC turned down its demand for holding fresh polls.

State BJP president Rahul Sinha also demanded re-election in all booths of Bidhannagar and most booths in Asansol.

“Votes were looted in all booths with the ruling party unleashing terror among genuine voters,” he said.

The polls in these two municipal corporations are considered important as these are the last key elections in the state before it goes to Assembly polls next year.

While the opposition parties have alleged that large number of outsiders had been brought in to intimidate and scare off genuine voters, the ruling Trinamool Congress has denied any such activity by the party.

“As the ruling party we will never want any breach of peace,” Partha Chatterjee, TMC secretary-general, has said and accused CPI(M) of trying to create disturbances during the polls.

A number of journalists covering the elections were also manhandled and a few of them had to be hospitalised.

Leaders of both opposition and the ruling party visited the injured journalists in hospitals this morning.

The idea was that the pigeons will be released when the rockets burst and fly off – making for a grand spectacle during the visit of state Congress chief N Raghuveera Reddy.

But the rockets went up and the pigeons fell dead, roasted in the intense heat when the crackers burst high up.

In the video, the pigeons were seen being stuffed into paper cones fixed atop rockets. A cardboard lid was put on it and sealed tight. The rocket was then lit.

An NGO – People For Animals has filed a complaint with the police and an FIR has been lodged against the state Congress unit citing cruelty to animals. Cruelty to animals carries a punishment in India.

The local Congress unit is yet to comment on the matter.  

File photo of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

Mr Gupta has written a letter to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for immediate release of funds and grants under various heads. “The festive season is round the corner, all employees expect salaries, pensions and other payments on time,” he wrote in the letter.

Mr Gupta said due to “non-payment” of global share, municipal reforms fund and other grants to NDMC, financial situation of the civic body has become “worse”.

The Mayor apprised the Chief Minister through his letter that due to non-payment of pension by the corporation for more than a year, nearly 80,000 families have been suffering.

“As a result of cutting of funds of Rs 158 crore under education head and Rs 30 crore under health head, many important schemes are pending,” he said.

Mr Gupta has also urged the government to establish a strong coordination with NDMC for an early resolve of fund-related issues and better delivery of services to the people.



 

File photo of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. (Agence France-Presse)

During the probe into the alleged scam in Talabira-II coal-block allocation, Singh was asked by CBI, “When the letter dated August 17, 2005 of Naveen Patnaik addressed to you as PM had only requested to provide required coal linkage for the important project of M/s HINDALCO, which was already allocated, why did you approve the accommodation of HINDALCO in the share of coal in Talabira-II coal block.”

Responding to the query, Mr Singh said, “This letter of CM of Odisha also mentioned about the allocation of Talabira-II coal block to M/s HINDALCO Industries Ltd. This was required to be looked into by the Ministry of Coal.

“It was interpreted by the MoC that the request in the letter was regarding issue of allocation of Talabira-II coal block. This recommendation was approved by me after it was examined by the PMO officials,” said Mr Singh, who was also the Coal Minister at that time.

“With regard to the query that giving coal block could be more beneficial financially to the company than giving a coal linkage as the price of coal from coal block is much cheaper than price of coal from coal linkage; I state that it is true of all allocations to the private sector,” Mr Singh said.

Mr Singh further said that if this logic was applied, the government should not make any allocation for the private sector.

“In this context, the recommendation of the Chief Minister of Odisha vide his letter dated August 17, 2005 favouring HINDALCO for allocation of Talabira-II is relevant,” he said.

While Mr Birla had written letters requesting the government to “change the decision” of not considering HINDALCO for the coal block, Patnaik had requested a review of the decision.

The special court had summoned Mr Singh, Mr Parakh, Mr Birla and others as accused in the case while refusing to accept CBI’s closure report.

They have all denied any wrongdoing in the case.

The Supreme Court had on April 1 stayed the trial court’s order summoning them as accused.

Mr Singh said while the Coal Ministry “interpreted” Patnaik’s request to be for allocation of the block, Mr Parakh had proposed to “accommodate” HINDALCO.

“This was approved by me after it was examined by the PMO officials,” the former Prime Minister said.

Mr Singh said the issue was to see whether HINDALCO could be accommodated without harming the interest of Neyveli Lignite Corporation Ltd (NLC), a PSU, which was initially recommended by screening committee for the block.

“On being asked as to why I approved the proposal of Secretary, MoC, to accommodate HINDALCO in the share of coal in Talabira-II coal block, though the SC (screening committee) had in its minutes mentioned that coal linkage of 3.06 MTPA had already been allocated to HINDALCO which was sufficient to meet the full requirement of 650MW power plant and that no separate coal block needs to be given for the Aditya Aluminium Project; I state that I went by the advice of Secretary (Coal) and as endorsed by the officials of the PMO,” Mr Singh said.

“It was due to the letter of the CM of Odisha (Patnaik) that the whole matter was re-opened. The issue was to see whether Birla could be accommodated without harming the interest of NLC,” he said.

As per the 25th screening committee, the case of a number of companies, including HINDALCO, was not considered favourable and it had decided to allocate Talabira-II coal block to NLC.

Shashank Manohar’s first stint as BCCI President was from 2008-2011 .

© AFP

Shashank Manohar was unanimously elected as President of BCCI. Here are the highlights of what he said:

# BCCI is a huge brand in itself. Without the support of the fans, it would not have gotten big. I would like to carry forward the good work done by Jagmohan Dalmiya.

# The BCCI will appoint an ethics officer to look into the complaints of conflict of interest issue.

# The BCCI will also educate the players in order to wipe out corruption from the game.

# The accounts of all the state associations would be handled by an independent officer.

# Any expenditure spent in excess of 25 lakhs would be put out on the website.

# To clear the myth of lack of transparency, we will be putting out details on the website immediately.

# There are no spinners in country and it is the duty of the BCCI to see there is an available lot.

# BCCI would like to develop women’s cricket.

# Priority of BCCI will be to conduct 2016 World Twenty20 in the best possible manner.

# I will not exercise my chairman’s vote in the AGM until the constitution is amended.

# The BCCI will implement all the measures in two months period.

He was the Unanimous Choice

Manohar was the unanimous choice as BCCI President and this was confirmed in the Special General Meeting of the BCCI in Mumbai on Sunday.

This will be Manohar’s second stint as BCCI President, having taken over from Sharad Pawar in 2008/09. It lasted for three years and it ended in 2011 when N. Srinivasan was appointed as the BCCI President.

Manohar took over the post at the Board’s SGM which lasted less than half an hour. He was the only candidate left in the fray for the election in which the deadline for filing nomination ended Saturday evening.

The election was necessitated by the sudden demise of Jagmohan Dalmiya, who had a short term of seven months after his election in March this year. Dalmiya was made the interim President when Srinivasan “stepped aside” in the wake of revelations that his son-in-law was involved in betting during the 2013 IPL season.

All the six units of East Zone unanimously proposed Manohar’s candidature for the president’s post, reflecting Srinivasan’s diminishing hold in Board’s power politics.

A BCCI by-election needs only one proposer from the zone which is electing the president and it was the East’s turn this time. Manohar got the nod from all the six associations and was the lone nomination at the end of the 7 pm deadline yesterday.

Interestingly, one of the proposers for Manohar was Dalmiya’s son Avishek, who was representing his family club National Cricket Club (NCC) in the SGM.

Srinivasan skipped the meeting and the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association was represented by PS Raman.

The others who also proposed Manohar’s name were Sourav Ganguly from Bengal, Sourav Dasgupta from Tripura, Gautam Roy from Assam, Ashirbad Behera of Odisha and Sanjay Singh of Jharkhand State Cricket Association (JSCA).

His anointment also means that Srinivasan now has little chance of coming back into the BCCI fold till 2017 when the Vidarbha man’s tenure ends

Thakur Believes BCCI Will Carry on Reforms Under Manohar’s Leadership

Thakur has said that the BCCI will continue the reforms under leadership of new president Shashank Manohar, which the Board had started in the last six months.

“After the sad demise of Mr Dalmiya. It was important to continue the reforms taken place in last six months. We have seen the previous tenure of Manohar, where his work has been appreciated by everyone and we believe under his leadership BCCI will continue with the reforms which has taken place under Dalmiya’s leadership,” Thakur said. (Read More)

Manohar’s Experience Will Help Indian Cricket, Says Sourav Ganguly

Former India skipper Sourav Ganguly said he believes Manohar will do a good job. “A lot of important people have led BCCI in the past and Manohar has also done it quite well. I am sure he will do a good job,” said Ganguly, who has been named as Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) president. (Read More)

During the special drive daytime (2 pm to 5 pm) carried out on October 1 and October 3, a total of 82 cases were registered against drunken drivers, including drivers of two-wheelers, three-wheelers and cars, Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Jitender said.

Drunken drivers will be counselled at all traffic police stations to ensure their safety and as well as other commuters and pedestrians, the police officials said.

The main aim of the special drive is to impart traffic education to violators of safety, the police official said, adding that the drive would continue.

“The government is at an advanced stage in considering the requirement of furnishing PAN card details if cash transactions beyond a certain limit are undertaken,” Mr Jaitley said in a Facebook post.

He said the monitoring regime of the Income Tax Department has been strengthened and its capacity to access information and apply technology driven analytical tools to expose evasion has been enhanced. (Also read: Non-Declarants of foreign assets to face consequences: Jaitley)

“Its ability to detect large cash withdrawals, or large cash transactions which enter the system, is being strengthened. GST (Goods and Services Tax) regime once introduced will also be a landmark step in this direction.”

“Thus for commodities like gold where the initial purchase by the exporter is after the payment of custom duty, the subsequent transactions which are mostly in cash, can easily be found out,” Mr Jaitley said.

In Budget for 2015-16, the Finance Minister had proposed making quoting of permanent account number (PAN) mandatory for all sale and purchase of over Rs 1 lakh.

“Quoting of PAN is being made mandatory for any purchase or sale exceeding the value of Rs 1 lakh. The third party reporting entities would be required to furnish information about foreign currency sales and cross border transactions,” Mr Jaitley had said.

Thereafter, the government had received representations from various persons, including MPs, MLAs, trade and industry associations, among others, against the proposed mandatory quoting of PAN for sale or purchase in excess of Rs 1 lakh.

Stressing that bulk of black money is still within India, Mr Jaitley said there was a need to change the national attitude so that plastic currency becomes the norm and cash an exception and the government is working with various authorities to incentivize this change.

“Being seized of this problem, the government has been working with various authorities in order to incentivize this change. The opening of a large number of payment gateways, internet banking, payment banks and the emerging reality of e-commerce will prompt the use of banking transactions and plastic money rise significantly,” Mr Jaitley said.

The JAM (Jan Dhan, Aadhaar, Mobile) Trinity and the Direct Benefit Transfer of subsidies to the accounts of beneficiaries of various government schemes will also be a step ahead in this direction, Mr Jaitley added.

Each of the 18 crore beneficiaries of Jan Dhan accounts has been provided with RuPay cards, which will encourage them to use plastic currency and get familiarised with it, he said.

The MUDRA scheme, over the next few years, has a target of 6 crore families out of 25 crore families in India to become entrepreneurs.

Loans being made available to them by the banks can only be withdrawn from the ATMs by use of MUDRA credit cards which are being provided to them. More and more of their transactions will be through plastic currency or through the banking channel, Mr Jaitley added.

The West Bengal State Election Commission have postponed counting of votes in the election.

“We have decided to postpone counting of votes,” State Election Commissioner Susanta Upadhyay told newspersons at SEC office in Kolkata.

The counting was scheduled to be held on October 7.

He said the SEC would go through reports and video footages of violence from its own sources and also news channels before taking any further decision.

Opposition parties in the state have demanded that the elections be countermanded and fresh elections held, alleging large-scale violence by the ruling Trinamool Congress.

To a question on repoll, Upadhyay said, “There is no question of ordering repolls at this juncture. We will take a decision after going through reports and video footages.”

In Sagar district, about 350 km from Dewas, another family is in mourning. 35-year-old Bhaiya Raju Adivasi drank pesticide after rain deficit destroyed his soyabean crop on his two and a half acres.

In the last fortnight, two farmers have committed suicide in Dewas and Sagar district, unable to cope with their losses.

The rainfall pattern in the state has been quite erratic this monsoon season, which has either destroyed soyabean crop or has led to a very low yield.

In Barkhedi Maan village,  Anil Kumavat had sown tomato and soyabean crop this year but because of initial dry spell followed by a heavy rain during the flowering period of crop the yield came down to 10 per cent. As losses mounted, the loan of six lakh seemed impossible to repay.

Badrilal Kumavat, father of Anil said: “Last year we sold four bighas of land to repay our debts and this year soyabean and tomato crop failed. So my son took this extreme step.”

At least 22 farmer suicides have been reported this year in Madhya Pradesh but the government says it’s not due to crop failure.

State Agriculture Minister Gauri Shankar Bisen said, “70 per cent of people live in villages in Madhya Pradesh and are farmers. There are other reasons for suicide, but we are with farmers. In 2013 we gave Rs 2,200 crore as compensation to the farmers, which is the highest in the country.”

But farmers say the government’s claims are not true.

“I have suffered a loss of Rs 20,000 this year. Government help does not reach us, even if compensation is allocated to the district only a few farmers, who have an understanding with the administration, receive it,” said farmer Darbar Singh.

#SinghIsBliing Fri 20.67 cr, Sat 14.50 cr. Total: Rs 35.17 cr. India biz… Biz should escalate on Sunday.

? taran adarsh (@taran_adarsh) October 4, 2015

However, his prediction says that the romantic-comedy should fare better on Sunday. Singh Is Bliing features Akshay as Raftaar Singh and also stars Amy Jackson as his love interest.

The opening day collections of the movie, surpassed the Bollywood Khiladi‘s other 2015 releases like Gabbar Is Back (Rs 13.05 crores), Baby (Rs 9.3 crores) and Brothers ( Rs 15.20 crores ). And it did so by a fair margin, to become his “biggest opener.” (Also Read: Akshay’s ‘Spectacular’ Box Office Bliing, Rs 20 Cr on Opening Day)

On the other hand, Meghna Gulzar’s Talvar performed slightly better than Friday, minting Rs 2.75 crores on Saturday. Mr Adarsh shared the collections, which read a total of Rs 5.75 crores.



 

#Talvar witnessed an upward trend on Sat, after national holiday on Fri. Thu previews 50 lacs, Fri 2.50 cr, Sat 2.75 cr. Total: Rs 5.75 cr.

? taran adarsh (@taran_adarsh) October 4, 2015

Irrfan Khan and Konkona Sen Sharma’s Talvar is a crime-thriller and is based on the Aarushi Talwar murder case. Both Singh Is Bliing and Talvar hit screens on October 2.



 

The court was hearing a plea by the resident’s welfare associations of Vasant Vihar challenging the Public Works Department (PWD)’s decision to build a three-lane flyover parallel to the single-lane flyover on RTR marg.

“Has traffic management (been) done properly,” a bench of justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and Sanjeev Sachdeva asked Delhi government and the traffic police after the court was informed that the area was witnessing serious traffic snarls due to gaps in the barriers placed to prevent traffic coming in from adjoining colonies.

The court was told that due to gaps in the barriers kept on the road to regulate vehicular movement, cars were entering Outer Ring Road through the adjoining Vasant Vihar colony at various places near the RTR flyover, causing major jams.

It was also submitted before court that the road connecting RTR marg to Mahipalpur was not navigable, and this was further leading to the traffic chaos in the area.

The court was hearing a plea by the resident’s welfare associations of Vasant Vihar challenging the Public Works Department (PWD)’s decision to build a three-lane flyover parallel to the single-lane flyover on RTR marg.

The court will now hear the matter on November 18.

On October 28 last year, the court had said that “the alternative measures discussed for de-congesting the traffic to and from the airport, particularly, at the T-junction joining Nelson Mandela Marg and the Outer Ring Road as also the entry point after Ryan International School from Mehrauli- Mahipalpur Road to the DDA road shall be made operational within two weeks.”

It had said the authorities shall endeavour to make operational every route they intend to use during diversion of traffic while building the flyover.

Vasant Vihar residents associations have sought that a six-lane flyover be built in the same location by demolishing the existing one while PWD plans to build a three-lane elevated road from Munirka to Signals Enclave, which will also run parallel to the RTR Marg flyover.

This would ensure that people do not have to face any problem while getting birth and death certificates, he said in a release in Chandigarh.

Speaking on female foeticide, Mr Vij said that the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act, 1994 was being implemented in a strict manner.

Under this, investigation and raids have been conducted in about 2,400 cases, and registration of 53 private centres has been canceled or suspended. In this duration, 41 ultrasound machines have been sealed and 28 cases have been registered in lower courts, he informed.

Mr Vij said for the strict implementation of this Act, District Advisory Committee organised 93 meetings in various districts of the state, in which it was asked to make people aware and motivate doctors to avoid such acts.

Apart from this, the Health Department is making efforts to spread awareness among the people to stop female foeticide.

This is giving a fillip to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ programme, he added.

Accordingly, the actual reduction in home loan rate will be a maximum of only 20 basis points, while a higher margin above the base rate will mean customers will have to pay the same rate of interest for home loans above Rs 1 crore.

The rate for ‘Maxgain’ home loans above Rs 1 crore – at 9.75 per cent for women – would come down only 20 basis points, while for other customers it would actually remain unchanged at 10 per cent with effect from Monday despite a reduction of 40 basis points in base rate.

For CRE (commercial real estate) Maxgain loans, SBI would charge as much as 65 basis points above base rate or 9.95 per cent for women customers and 70 basis points above the base rate or 10 per cent for other customers.

The bank’s spokesperson was not immediately available for comments. However, bank officials tried to justify the increase in the markup over base rate, saying the decline in actual home loan rates has been 75 basis points since December 2013, as against a reduction in base rate by 70 basis points.

They also said that the base rate for other lenders continues to be higher at 9.55 per cent, while in December 2013 also it was higher at 10.3 per cent as against SBI’s 10 per cent.

Interestingly, state-owned SBI was among the first lenders to announce a reduction in its rates after the RBI surprised with a 50 basis points cut in its policy rate on September 29 as it lowered its minimum lending rate, or base rate, by 40 basis points – the highest for any lender so far – from 9.7 per cent to 9.3 per cent with effect from October 5. (Read: SBI cuts lending rate)

“RBI has cut interest rate by 0.50 per cent, we have reduced it by 0.40 per cent,” SBI chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya had said on Tuesday about the cut in SBI’s base rate, soon after RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan announced a 50 basis point cut in the central bank’s policy rate to 6.75 per cent – the lowest level in his tenure.

However, in its latest circular dated October 3 to all local head offices, SBI has explained the actual home loan interest rates that would be applicable across various categories following the latest reduction in the base rate coming into effect from Monday, October 5.

According to the circular, women customers, who typically get a subsidised rate, would be charged 20 basis points above the base rate, resulting in an actual interest rate of 9.5 per cent Monday onwards – down only 20 basis points from the existing rate of 9.7 per cent.

Till now, women home loan customers were being given housing loans at the base rate of 9.7 per cent without any markup, but Monday onwards, they will be charged 20 basis points above the base rate of 9.3 per cent or an interest rate of 9.5 per cent.

Other customers, who were being charged 5 basis points above the base rate or 9.75 per cent, would have to pay 25 basis points above base rate, or 9.55 per cent, for home loans – resulting again in an actual reduction of 20 basis.

For Maxgain home loans for amount more than Rs 1 crore, SBI was till Sunday charging 25 basis points above the base rate or an actual rate of 9.95 per cent to women customers and 30 basis points over and above the base rate or a final rate of 10 per cent for others. This rate would come down to only 9.75 per cent for women customers, as the markup has been increased to 45 basis points over the base rate, while the rate for other customers in this category would come down to only 9.8 per cent as the margin has gone up to 50 basis points.

From Monday, the rate for women customers in the CRE Maxgain category would be 65 basis points above base rate or an actual rate off 9.95 per cent, while the same for other customers would be 10 per cent or 70 basis points over the base rate.

Explaining the revised rates, SBI said these would be applicable to all home loans including takeover proposals from other lenders and those sanctioned by various branches with effect from October 5.

The revised rates would also be applicable to those existing home loan borrowers who are paying higher interest rate than the current rate and want to switch over to the current rates on upfront payment of one-time switchover fee.

“No further interest concession would be available under any arrangement and in any case, the effective interest rate should not be allowed to go below (these) rates,” SBI said.

The tribunal directed the National Insurance Company Ltd, insurer of the offending motorcycle, to pay Rs 5,36,127 to Laxmi Nagar resident Sabita Haldar.

The tribunal directed the National Insurance Company Ltd, insurer of the offending motorcycle, to pay Rs 5,36,127 to Laxmi Nagar resident Sabita Haldar, who suffered injuries in the mishap in September 2013.

“The insurance company is hereby directed to pay the compensation of Rs 5,36,127 within one month to the claimant (woman),” said MACT presiding officer, Ravinder Bedi.

In its order, the tribunal also said that “a victim of an accident has to be compensated in terms of money even if gratuitous services are rendered by a family member”.

According to the petition filed by Ms Haldar, she was hit by a motorcycle driven at high speed and in a negligent manner at 9.30 PM on September 26, 2013, while she was crossing the road.

She suffered grievous injuries in the accident and was taken to a hospital, it said.

Ms Haldar, who was working as a maid, had claimed that she had suffered multiple fracture of bones of her right limbs and sought compensation.

The motorcycle driver did not file his written statement before the tribunal and the proceedings were conducted ex-parte.