Insurance company pays after 12 years

The Maharashtra State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission recently ordered an insurance company to pay around Rs 9 lakh to the widow of one Ganesh Sawadekar, who died while crossing the tracks in Pune in 1999.

National Insurance Company Ltd had repudiated the claim on the grounds that the act of trespassing the railway line was criminal and illegal act and hence the insurance claim would not be payable. However, stating that the act cannot be called criminal, the commission observed, "When a railway line is going through the city area, we find that at many places people have to cross from unmanned crossings."

Holding the company guilty of deficiency of service for repudiating the claim on flimsy grounds, the commission said, "This is not a criminal act. It was purely an accidental death for which claim should have been allowed."

The insurance company will now pay Sangita Sawadekar Rs 5 lakh together with 7% per interest from the date of repudiation of claim in April 2001 till actual payment. She will also receive Rs 5,000 towards the cost of the complaint.

On May 15, 1999, Ganesh Sawadekar, an employee with an engineering and locomotive company, died after he was hit by a train while crossing the railway tracks in Pune. Through his company's employee welfare association, the insurance company had offered the employees a personal accident insurance policy. On payment of premium of Rs 200, the insurance company had assured to give nominees Rs 5 lakh in case of death.

Sangita filed the claim through the welfare society giving all relevant documents. However, the insurance company repudiated the claim on the ground that Ganesh had committed a "criminal act" by trespassing on the railway line and the railways did not establish the death as accidental. Sangita pleaded that she was never issued a policy of the insurance company mentioning the exclusion clause. She then filed the consumer complaint.

Minister wants LPG subsidy to be lifted

For RPN Singh, reforms begin at home. Exhorting the well-off to pay market price for cooking gas on Monday, the MoS for petroleum said he would be the first to volunteer for giving up subsidized fuel.

Addressing an industry meet on petroleum, Singh said subsidized cooking gas was meant only for the poor and the needy and the rich "should take the initiative voluntarily to give up subsidized LPG".

A cooking gas cylinder costs Rs 399 in Delhi and Rs 398 in Mumbai because of government subsidy. At current market rates, a refill would cost Rs 287 more. Depending on the international price of the fuel, the market rate of a cylinder could even shoot up to double the present price.

"There may be many others like me who would want to pay market price since subsidy is not for them. I am going to write to companies, industry associations and other stakeholders on how to go about the issue," said Singh.

Singh, who is in charge of ensuring fuel supplies throughout the country and struggling with mounting subsidy bill, appears to have been forced to look for volunteers after the ministry shelved a proposal to limit the number of subsidized cylinders to four in a year. For every subsequent refill, the proposal envisaged, consumers would have had to pay market price.

Singh said the idea is to replicate what happened some years ago, when people who could afford it stopped buying foodgrains from PDS shops despite having ration cards. His idea is to first have ministers, MPs, bureaucrats and the senior management of public sector companies to give up subsidized cooking gas voluntarily. Taking the cue, other sections like corporate executives and businessmen would also follow suit.

One way of doing it could be that affluent continue buying subsidized cooking gas and pay the difference between the market price to the oil companies directly through cheques. The other way would be that these classes start buying the blue-coloured 19-kg cylinders that are being sold at market price.

Singh said the fuel subsidy bill for this fiscal is projected at Rs 132,000 crore and such bold moves are needed to cut this down.

Indian petrol price higher than neighbouring countries

Petrol in India is not just costlier than in the neighbouring countries Pakistan and Nepal, but its price has also seen higher increase since April last year.

Even after the November 16 reduction of Rs 2.22 per litre in rates, petrol at Rs 66.42 a litre in Delhi is costlier than Rs 48.64 a litre in Pakistan.

Whereas in Sri Lanka it is Rs 61.38 per litre and Rs 65.26 per litre in landlocked Nepal. Incidentally, Nepal does not have a refinery and imports all its requirement from India.

Giving this information in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas R P N Singh said petrol price in India has risen 39 per cent, or Rs 18.49 per litre, since April 2010.

Petrol in Delhi cost Rs 47.63 per litre last year. The hike in rates in Paksitan is lower at 26 per cent - from Rs 38.74 per litre to Rs 48.64 a litre. Sri Lanka has seen a 36 per cent increase from Rs 45.23 per litre in April 2010 to Rs 61.38 a litre at present.

In Nepal, petrol price when up from Rs 49.98 per litre to Rs 65.26 a litre currently, an increase of 31 per cent.

To another question, Singh said nearly 45 per cent of the current retail price of petrol in Delhi is made up of taxes.

The refinery price of petrol is just Rs 36.82 per litre, on top of which Rs 2.25 in inland freight and marketing cost and margin is added. Besides, Rs 14.78 per litre is the excise duty component and Rs 11.07 a litre is the sales tax that Delhi government charges. Another Rs 1.50 is the commission that petrol pump dealers earn.

Failed ATM transaction - Consmer court orders SBI to pay

The Pune District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum (consumer court) has directed the State Bank of India (SBI) to pay a compensation of Rs 10,000 to a woman whose account was debited of Rs 5,000 despite a failed ATM transaction of the said amount.

On July 14, 2010, Nirmala Mahadeo Hande from Pimple Saudagar had tried to withdraw Rs 5,000 from SBI’s ATM at Narpatgir chowk in Somwar Peth. However, the first ATM machine failed to dispense money even after entering the PIN. She therefore cancelled the transaction and moved on to the second ATM machine next to the first one. She had withdrawn Rs 7,000 from that machine but the ATM receipt reflected a debit amount of Rs 12,000.

Hande immediately lodged written complaint in this regard with SBI’s main branch in Pune. After continuous follow-up, the Bank deposited Rs 5,000 in her account on August 7, 2010, but on September 28, 2010, the Bank froze the account citing that internal investigation by the Bank was pending. When Hande demanded to see the CCTV footage of the ATM centre, the Bank refused to show it to her. She later approached the consumer court against the bank.

After hearing both sides, the consumer court bench headed by its president Anjali Deshmukh and member S K Kapse in their order held SBI guilty of negligence and responsible for deficiency in service. “The SBI took over an year to conclude its investigation and the complainant was unable to use principal amount from July 14, 2010 to September 10,2011,” the order stated.

Balance enquiry on your mobile

Soon non-financial transactions like balance enquiry could be moved out of bank ATMs to your mobile phones. This will work in the same way as you can check your mobile prepaid balance by dialing some specific codes. 

National Payments Corporation of India is in talks with mobile companies to facilitate banking transactions through USSD (unstructured supplementary service data) messages. USSD messages are at present used by mobile companies to enable users check pre-paid balances and get information on offers by dialing a specific code. 

These query are real-time on the telecom networks server and are therefore faster and more responsive than SMS queries.

Preventing Credit and Debit card frauds

Banking has come a long way from old times, Now we can access our bank accounts from Internet, ATM machines and even from our mobile phones. Along with it, usage of plastic money has also increased dramatically.

Most of us nowadays are using Credit and Debit cards for various purposes, from shopping to paying bills.

However, most of us are still concerned about the risks involved in these new-age banking channels. Read this excellent article on Economic Times to help you in securing your credit and debit cards and what to do in case of frauds.