FATCA Self Certification online submission for NPS

NPS Account holders can now visit www.npscra.nsdl.co.in and complete their FATCA Self Certification online submission .

It is a simple process which may take the user a few minutes . Login into www.npscra.nsdl.co.in  using your PRAN and follow the process for FATCA self certification . In case you are using this web site for the first time , you would need to go through the registration process .

Either way keep your PRAN number and Mobile phone handy as a OTP ( One Time Password sent to the Registered Mobile Number ) validation would be required .

 

 

How to start Investing in MF

I take it that you are a absolute novice and have never invested in a Mutual Fund. You always wanted to , but could never decide and wanted some help as to how to go about

This is a step by step by guide

1. For a starter the type of Fund you would start investing in are called a “Balanced Funds” . They are called Balanced Funds as they try strike a Balance between investing in Stock Market and Bank/Corporate/Government Bonds (FDs) . So that if Stock Market crashes , the Bonds/FDs part of investment would cushion the returns and If the Bond/FD returns are low , the Stock Investment would help provide a better return
2. You would choose “Direct Plan” as these are plans which are No Broker Plans , which means all expense associated with Brokers are eliminated
3. You would choose the “Growth” option , that means all your money and profits that you make remain invested untill you decide to sell a take a profit
4. These are my Recommendations
   1. ICICI Pru Balanced Fund- Direct
   2. HDFC Balanced Fund – Direct (G)
   3. Tata Balanced Fund – Direct (G)
5. Documents that you would need to start this process
   1. Your Aadhar Number
   2. A scanned copy of a  cheque leaf  which clearly shows your name
   3. PAN Number
   4. Email Id
   5. Your Bank Account needs to be Internet Banking Enabled
6. CAMS ( This company handle back office functions for about 15 odd MFs ) and hence investing through CAMS would be like investing directly with a MF without any broker
7. use this Link : MYCAMS
8. Follow all the process step by step

FACTA

All Individual Investors with investment in MF must have been receiving letters and emails from their Mutual Funds (MF)  asking them to submit FACTA form . If you are thinking of getting a print out and filling and signing the form and then couriering the form to your MF .. there is a easier way out

You can use one of these links to do the FACTA compliance online

If your MF is handled by CAMS , you can use this link  https://www.camsonline.com/FATCA/COL_FATCAMainPage.aspx

And in case karvy handles your MF , then you can use this https://images.karvymfs.com/fatcadeclaration.aspx

Best way to deposit money in NPS

If you are a NPS subscriber and would want to deposit money in your Tier-1 and Tier-2 account and thought going through a POP and paying the POP’s 0.25% of the amount being deposited as charges was the only way … well No

I feel the most cost efficient way would be to use this web site  https://enps.nsdl.com

This site allows you to make payment using Credit Card , Debit Card and even Net Banking without the usual 0.25% charges … use the Net Banking for extremely low charge even on this web-site

It may take a couple of days for the amount to reflect in your NPS account

Transaction and Service charges

Net Banking: Rs.0.60 per transaction plus Service Taxes @ 14% i.e. 0.084 = Rs.0.684

Debit Cards: 0.80% of the transaction amount plus Service Taxes @ 14% i.e. 0.112 = 0.912%

Credit Cards: 0.90% of the transaction amount plus Service Taxes @ 14% i.e. 0.126 = 1.026%

 

Easiest way to know EPF amount ( UAN registered users ONLY)

EPF office has done many innovations in recent years . This is one of their most intuitive and best innovation

If you are an EPF user who has activated your UAN number and have also registered your mobile number on the EPF website

Then , all that you would need to do to know your EPF amount at any time is to just give a missed call from your Register Mobile Number to  01122901406

You will immediately receive an SMS with your EPF Account and Amount details

TDS applicable on Recurring Deposit

All these days only when interest on your FD crosses Rs.10,000 you would have been subjected to TDS of 10% and in case no PAN number was provided then that would have been 20% of the interest amount

Recurring Deposit were never subjected to this provision , thought the interest earned were never tax free , but it was on the deposit holder to declare his/her earnings from RDs and pay taxes on that .

From now it would not be so .. all RDs would be treated as FD and any interest that they earn above Rs.10,000 in a financial year would be subjected to TDS

So this loophole or differential treatment has been plugged

IMPS – Immediate Payment Service

NEFT was a game changer since it was launched and i do not think there is anybody among my readers who have not used NEFT . NEFT has been such a game changer that use of Cheques has been reduced to a minuscule minority.

NEFT has its short comings , like , it is not real-time , it would not work after working hours , it would not work on Sundays and holidays and so on .. These short comings needed a fix and fix is provided by  —– IMPS

IMPS can be used as used by NEFT using the IFSC Code and Account Number or Account Holder can generate a unique Mobile Money Identifier (MMID) for his Account and share this MMID and Account Holder’s registered Mobile Phone number and anybody can transfer money

Remember these main features of IMPS

• It is Real-time , that is , money would transfer immediately
• It would work after office hours too
• It would work on Sundays and on Holidays too

What you need to do after you buy a Term Plan

Every investment advisor will advice you that it is a good idea to buy a term plan , but what to do after you buy the term plan .. well here are few stuffs that you can do 

• Check the name , make sure it is proper and also make sure that it is exactly like it is in all your Id proof
• Just like Demat Account for shares there is a new kind of account offered for free , where all your insurance polices ( yes across different Insurance companies ) can be stores online .. so make sure you get such an account and keep all your policies there .Need more detail click here
• Why is Point (2) important , because it has been found that in most of the cases , the original Insurance policy document would be lost or misplaced and also that you can give access to this account to your dependants , so that they access this account when you are not around any more 
• please do add a recurring reminder for annual premium payment , so that you do not forget to pay the premiums every year

National Insurance Goes Online

The general insurance major,  National Insurance Company has finally woken-up to the realities of the Internet and On-line Payment . Though National Insurance Company had a website for many years now , it was more of a site you visit to read about and could not have done any transactions there .

Many people I know of still have their Motor Insurances and even Medical Insurance policies with National Insurance Company and for these people it was a painful experience to pay the annual premiums and main reason for this pain was

• The Office would not open for business until about 10:30 -11:00 in the morning
• The Offices are closed on Saturdays
• You would need to go to a specific office to pay and cannot pay at any of their offices

Though LIC had realised the benefits of allowing their customer to transact online long time back , these General Insurance Companies never woke-up from their slumber

Now , finally i see that  National Insurance Company website http://niconline.in is changed to handle transactions . There are few issues still , but none the less there has been a beginning

International usage of Credit/Debit Cards

Reserve Bank of India has recently introduced some additional Security and Risk Mitigation measures to reduce misuse of Credit Cards and Debit Cards issued in India from outside India 

For most of us who rarely use our personal cards for non Rupee transactions there are a couple of things we can do , especially for cards that we already have 

We can login-in into our card account online and either 

• Set an International Credit/Spending Limit . So that we can limit the misuse 
• Disable the card for International usage altogather . You can enable this again as when you may need it from your online account 

Some banks like HDFC have already provided such an option and I’am sure other banks are in the process of providing such an option .

In case you would like to read the RBI Notification , read it here