Should he be named a visionary, the one who became a darling of millions (roughly 320 mn) of middle class households in India? Am talking about none other than our dear Finance minister, Mr P Chidambaram.
He came with a slew of sops for salaried individuals (or I should say tax payers :)), giving benefits to the tune of 40K-50K per year per earning member in a family.
Now consider this:
- Inflation is in the region of 12%, compared to measly 5% when the budget was announced
- Air turbine fuel (ATF, which is nearly 40% of operating cost of an airline) has caused airlines to increase the fuel surcharge on all sectors
- With oil prices touching all time peak (though now it has slipped a lot, to the figures of 120$ per barrel, still it is pretty high), the govt has been forced to increase the retail oil prices by Rs 5
- Increased interest rates, CRR, bank lending rates etc.
Let's see what has been the impact of this on a small nuclear family:
- If a nuclear family of 3 makes a domestic air-trip every year, there earlier cost of the travel (to-fro, only airlines) if it was say 15K, would be easily
in the region of 25-30k, making a dent of additional 17k (on an average) per year.
- Assuming the similar family had a 4 wheeler vehicle, and they consumed 80 lt of petrol every month, the cost would have gone up roughly by 5.xx * 80 = 400+ Rs per month, which translates to nearly 5000 Rs in a year. Note, you can even add additional LPG price (of say 50 * 6 cylinders) per year.
- Inflation figures do not look good either. Assuming a monthly ration budget (for the same household) of 5000 Rs. We can take a conservative contribution of essential goods (including oil) which effect a common man because of inflation, say 70%. So with inflation hovering at 12%, the monthly budget for the household would have increased by: 5000 * 12% * 70% = Rs 420 or approx Rs 5000 per year (assuming inflation stays at this level)
- If the same household has taken a loan of 20 lacs for 20 years, with increased interest rates, the additional EMI burden would be roughly to the tune of 400 Rs, which means roughly Rs 5000 per year.
The net effect: 17 + 5 + 5 + 5 = 32K
So you can see how our dear Finance minister saw the future, he knew what was in store for us, and gave a respite to (I can say 'at least') the salaried middle-class Indians, and hence the title, 'The man who saw tomorrow'.
Please note, this is not to say that the self-employed population does not pay tax (and did not get benefits from the new income tax slabs), but the effect is directly seen on working class, where tax is deducted at source.
Now let me come to the essence of writing this up - given the above facts, how can we ensure the benefits which the govt passed on to us during budgets stay along with us, and let not increased cost of living, bother us. And above all, how to envision the big picture - saving fuel, saving environment, conservation etc to help the planet and yourself.
Most of the people would be already aware of the things, but I would like to highlight them in a different way in my next post on 'What is your carbon footprint?' and how to reduce it.
Recently I came across someone requesting for various deals available either through Credit Card or otherwise.
I thought of utilizing the service already provided by various banks to come up with this ready reckoner. Most banks like HSBC, ICICI used to send these mailers earlier, but are either being stopped or I am missing them in my spam folders.
Anyways, they are a good source of information for various deals in a city and is updated each month.
So here are some from HSBC:
All City Offers
City Specific deals (updated each month):
Bangalore
Delhi
(For other cities, click on All City offers.)
Visa Gold
All HSBC special-offers-and-discounts
This one on HSBC and BookMyShow.com is one of the good offers, if you watch movies regularly.
From ICICI:
WOW Deals from ICICI
(I shall add more in leisure)
As mentioned, in the corresponding post Been there done that, here is the wish list for places yet to see in my life:
1. Leh, Ladakh - India
2. Andaman, Nicobar Islands - India
3. Srilanka
4. Lakshwadeep Islands - India
5. Mauritius
6. Maldives
7. Great Wall of China - China
(More to follow, to complete the list of 1000 places :) )
It's been a pretty long time since I got a chance to update my blog.
Just plain lazy or been very busy.. dunno..
Of late, have been thinking of keeping a record of some of the good things in life to do. One of them has been exploring the world. Well, that is a far fetched dream, but in an earnest attempt, let me begin with places I have already visited in India (and other few places elsewhere in World).
Sometime in near future, I shall perhaps Geo-tag my photos on flickr and elsewhere to indicate the places visited. But for the time being, let me begin with a static list of 'Been There, Done That'!
I shall also maintain a '1000 places to visit before I die' and try to see how often I can move the items from this list to 'Been there...' list.
Btw, being on topic of 1000 places to visit before I die, here is the link to the official site for the places to explore in the world:
1000 Places to see before you die
Trekking
Pachmarhi - Madhya Pradesh, June 2007
Jungle Lodges@BR Hills - Karnataka, October-November 2007
Yelagiri Hills, Tamilnadu, April 2008
Toursit (out of India) - site seeing
Singapore - June 2006
Genting, KualaLampur - Malaysia, June 2006
Montreal, Canada - Jan 2008
Hill Station - site seeing
Srinagar, Pahalgaum - Jammu & Kashmir, October, 1986
Simla - umpteen number of times, forgot the count :)
Kullu, Manalli - Himachal Pradesh, October 1999
Mussorie, UP - June, 1992
Coorg, Madikeri - Karnataka, twice: January 2004, December 2004
Kodaikanal, TN - April, 2004
Darjeeling - Gangtok - Kalimpong, Eastern India, May 2005
Yercaud - TamilNadu, October 2006
Ooty, Coonor - TN, twice: February, 2006, May 2008
Monuments
Taj Mahal - Agra, Uttar Pradesh, Nov 1986
Hampi, Badami - North Karnataka, January-February 2004
Halebiud, Belur - Karnataka, twice: December 2004, October 2006
Qutub Minar, Jantar Mantar, Old Fort, Red Fort, etc - Delhi (many times, forgot the count :) )
Waterfalls
Niagra Falls - Newyork, USA, July 2001
Vernal Fall - Yosemite National Park, CA, USA, June 2000
Hogenakkal - TamilNadu (TN), October 2006
Sivasamundaram - Karnataka, August, 2005
Irpu Falls - Coorg, Karnataka, India, January 2004
Places/Cities - site seeing
Mysore, Karnataka - May 2005
Nandi Hills, Karnataka (near Bangalore) Nov 2006
(More to follow...)
मुझे लगता है कि मुझे हिंदी में ब्लोग करने में थोडा समय लगेगा।
मैंने काफी कोशिश करी की मैं समय को इंग्लिश में लिख सकूं, परंतु ऐसा हो ना सका।
खैर कोई बात नहीं, हम फिर से कोशिश करेंगे। Ok I have to type taim, which gets translated correctly! :)
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