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 She had withdrawn Rs 7,000 from that machine but the ATM receipt reflected a debit amount of Rs 12,000.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.

Indian online population, is the third largest

A recent survey has claimed that India is set to become the third largest nation of internet users in the next two years.

A large chunk of youngsters in the country are eager to adopt new technologies with rapidly changing lifestyles and easy availability of broadband services and increasing internet penetration will help India's online retail industry to grow worth Rs 7,000 crore by 2015, the survey says.

The Social Development Foundation (ASDF) of the country's apex industry body 'ASSOCHAM' conducted the survey in ten cities during January to June 2011.

Around 5,000 shoppers, in the age group between 16-35 years in the cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Ahmedabad,Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Lucknow and Jaipur, were interviewed as part of it, 'ASSOCHAM' sources said.

"A booming economy and rising disposable incomes have contributed to the evolution of online shopping,” said D S Rawat, secretary general of the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM).

About 40 per cent of those surveyed across the cities said they prefer to shop online due to the convenience to shop anytime during the 24 hours and one could collect detailed product information.

Consumers in Mumbai ranked number one among top five cities, who prefer shopping online and cited rising fuel prices as one of the primary reasons they do not want to visit traditional shopping hubs.

Ahmedabad ranked second where almost 55 per cent of respondents said they prefer online shopping, followed by Delhi, where 45 per cent of consumers said they would prefer not to venture outdoors for shopping.

Shoppers in Bangalore ranked 5th with 30 per cent of respondents saying they prefer to shop online, whereas 35 per cent of shoppers (mostly youngsters) said they prefer to stroll through malls for their shopping needs.

About 15 per cent of respondents said they prefer to shop at neighborhood markets and around 20 per cent of them opted for shopping at specialty stores to buy specific commodities such as groceries, apparels, toiletries and stationary.

However, a 20 per cent of the respondents said they prefer to shop at local traditional markets because of the familiarity with the ambiance, easy access, variety of goods, early opening and late closing and shop owners’ relationship with loyal customers.

TRAI's new Do Not Call law

From next month TRAI will be making the mobile operators responsible for allowing unwanted calls and text messages that have been drowning mobile-phone users. TRAI will also levy heavy fines on telecom companies that allow calls to be made to people on Do Not Call list.

The biggest change to current law will hold carriers responsible when telemarketers contact people on the Do Not Call registry. Under the new law carriers will face a fine of $2,200 for the first offense; $11,000 for the second offense; and $22,000 for each subsequent offense. The new rules were announced Dec. 1, yet enforcement has been delayed while officials and the industry worked out a key provision that lets subscribers know when a call or text message is from a telemarketer.

Under the provision, telemarketers' phone numbers must start by the numbers "140" on caller-ID screens and commercial text messages must have standard headers that will identify them.