Savings Schemes for Consumers

Most of the private sector and public sector employees are paying a huge amount of money as income tax. This is because they don’t know much about the ways of acquiring tax exemptions. It is a common comment from most of the employees that they are fed up of paying income tax and are not able to save much. This is happening because of the poor knowledge about the taxation structure of government of India. There are a number of plans offered by various financial institutions and banks with guaranteed return, better interest rate and tax saving under Indian Income Tax Act. These plans offer better growth rate for money with assured financial security.
Banks offer fixed deposit scheme in which a certain amount of money can be deposited for a specific period with a fixed interest rate. This is an ideal scheme for a consumer who looks for a regular income. Loans and over draft facilities are available for fixed deposit and deposits of 5 years or plus are having tax exemption under section 80C. Reserve Bank Of India offer RBI relief bond with a maturity period of 5 years and the interest received at the end is free from TDS. Also in this scheme interest is compounded at every six months. These types of relief bonds also can get tax exemption.
The most easiest way to save tax is to choose one from the various savings schemes offered by Indian Postal Department. There are various plans with different interest rates like post office time deposit, post office monthly income scheme, national saving certificate, kissan vikas patra etc. All these can help to save the tax. LIC and other insurance companies like Bajaj Allianz, ICICI prudential etc also offers various saving schemes and policies with tax exemption under sec 80C.There are other types of savings called infra structure bonds which are available through ICICI and IDBI banks which provides a tax benefit for Rs. 20000/= per annum under sec 80 C. The various expenditure like LIC premium payments, contribution to employees provident fund, national saving certificate, ULIP policies, repayment of housing loans, fixed deposits with banks and post offices, infra structure bonds, tuition fees for children etc are having rebates under Income Tax Act. Under section 80CCC(1) an amount up to 10000 rupees is exempted from tax payment for the pension contribution through LIC or other insurance companies. LIC is offering Jeevan Suraksha plan for pension schemes. Under sec 80C, 80CCC and 80CCD the deduction on income tax is limited to one lakh rupees. Under section 80 D, there is an eligibility of deduction up to Rs.10000 ( in case of senior citizen up to Rs.15000) can be obtained for the premium paid by cheque towards health insurance policy like Mediclaim. Such health insurance premium can include spouse and dependents (parents or children) under sec 80D. There is also conditional exemption for interest paid to bank loans for the purchase or construction of house up to an amount of Rs. 150000. So always it is advisable to get a good idea about how you can save your money.

A Consumer’s Right

As a consumer, we all expect to get the correct measure of whatever we are buying by paying money. If there were no control over this, there are chances that a lot of consumers will be cheated. Many years ago people used to check the weighing balance thoroughly to ensure that the shopkeepers are not cheating them by using false balances. There are many ways followed by the shopkeepers to cheat the consumers in the measurements of the products they buy. One of the tricks is to stick some magnets to the balance so that the actual quantity of the product will be less by few grams. Similarly extra metal pieces are welded to the measuring cups which are used to sell liquids like oil. They even add small pieces of stones, especially in cereals to increase their weight while measuring. But now a days, these practices have reduced a lot after the government started implementing the laws regarding this. Even then these malpractices still exists but not as much as it used to be.
The right of a consumer to get the correct weights and measures is protected through the Weights and Measures Act, 1976. It defines different units to measure different products. No other units should be used for measuring the consumer products. For example, the standard measure for length is metre. This ensures that one shop should not sell a cloth by specifying its measurement in feet. The price of the cloth should also be specified according to this measurement. This allows the consumers to compare prices of different materials and also from different shops. A Weights and Measures License should be with every shop. This is issued after testing and validating the measuring instruments used in that shop.
This act is also applicable to the sales of packaged commodities. According to this act, every packet of item should have information like product name, manufacturing date, expiry date, address of the manufacturer and MRP. The packet should also contain the contact details in case there is any consumer complaint regarding that product. And it is also the responsibility of the manufacturer to respond to these complaints. If it does not happen, the consumers can take legal action.
As a smart consumer, one should ensure that he gets the right quality of the item as mentioned in the packet or as promised by the retailer. A consumer has the right to check a measuring instrument in case he is not satisfied with the measurement or he suspects that he is cheated. He can confirm the measurement by checking it using authorized measuring instruments. The consumers should definitely check the label on the package as this information is given for their benefit only. They should check the manufacturing and expiry dates thoroughly. If they find any flaws with any product or retailer, it is their responsibility to give a complaint to the consumer forum. By doing this there is a big chance that such malpractices are reduced and you can save a lot of other consumers from being cheated.

The Silent Consumer

The silent consumer is an irony but nonetheless very much true. This is advocated by the fact that the consumers are silent. Practically, something that is impossible has found its way into the lives of the people. The rates of daily groceries and basic amenities have doubled up in the past 4-5 years. Is this not a cause for concern? The rates of inflation are going up and not one of the fancy ‘Netas’ seems to be putting in any effort towards sorting this mess.This is a country, where in the past the average consumer would have hit the streets in order to protest the rising prices. There have been a number of successful movements in the past which helped fight the price rises and these movements were not choreographed by some political party or a religious group but by the people who consume these goods. The customers of the various products were the people who fought against and spearheaded these movements against price hikes and galloping inflation rates.In the country’s history there was one instance in which a one paisa hike in tram fares was protested by the people. That was an age when there were more farmer strikes and lesser farmer suicides, and better consumer protection. The difference in these facts is evident. The consumers have gone silent. Too chicken hearted to fight for their rights, and this attitude is in no way helpful.The middle class who used to lead these protests now does not care much about spending time and energy into orchestrating strikes and movements; rather they have found another means of taking care of the so called price hikes. The usage of credit cards has gone up considerably; there is only one answer to this. The consumers are resorting to purchasing with credit cards. There is no dearth of money as the credit cards are being used to take care of the situation “for the moment”.Drivers, small time truck owners are the most affected due to the hike in fuel prices. A number of people in the lower strata are bearing the brunt of the rising prices. The so called political leaders seem to be scheming to look for the perfect time to raise the prices so that by providing some kind of reassurance to the people they can gain political mileage. The consumers do not stand a chance in this situation. Fighting with silence is not fighting but asad reminder that the people cannot stand up for their own consumer rights.. The usage of credit cards will eventually catch up with the people and will end up strangling them harder than ever as the interest rates will rise too.Houses, school education, LPG, rice and pulses are among the other commodities whose prices have gone up. The average school fees has also doubled in the past five years. With the salaries of the people remaining standard and the rising prices, there is only one thing left to do before the consumers are fully pushed over the edge, and that is to fight back.

Fight for what is Yours!

Who are you? Have you ever been asked this question? At least by yourself in the mirror? All of us know who we are, friend to someone, child to someone, parent to someone and so on. Let us look at a slightly bigger picture, the society or neighborhood. Who are we then? An important person, or a well known person, or the next door guy who greets people with a smile. Everyone is someone, and in the biggest picture, everyone is a consumer. How is that?

Do you consume? Anything? Any product? Then you are a consumer. You are a consumer to the economy, to the government, to the billion valued multinationals and to the low income earning vegetable vendor. So as consumers, what is our primary duty? To consume, of course… and what is our secondary duty? It is upholding the consumer rights. Now this is something not many are aware of, or I should say, are ignorant of.

The Indian attitude towards consumer issues is simple; it can be defined in one word. “Adjusting”. You don’t get the paper on time, you adjust, you do not get your milk packet on time, you wait for it. This is advisable if the case is of one day, but is that so? People adjust themselves to adjusting to things, and people include you, me and everyone else. The adjusting doesn’t stop with the milk and newspaper, it can very well go on throughout the day and into the night. The local watchman who goes around collecting money for staying up all night buys a nice stock of liquor for himself and passes out. We are his consumers, and yet we adjust. What are we going to get by adjusting? The answer is NOTHING. Nothing of value can be obtained, rather the things we procure by adjusting lose their value when you pay something more than your money for it.

Why should we argue with the shopkeeper? Why should we argue with the mail man? Neighbors look at you in a weird manner if you stand up for your right, and to avoid standing out in the crowd we ignore the issues for which we should have given importance and nipped in the bud. This simple thing of ignoring to avoid confrontation has snowballed into the lazy consumer attitude today. A shop nearby sells goods at exorbitant rates and another shop a bit far away sells it at the right prices. But the shop nearby gets maximum sales because people tend to ignore questioning the shopkeeper for selling at higher rates.

When the people affected the most (i.e.: consumers) themselves aren’t too bothered about standing up for their rights why should the government bother? The government gets its share from sources that keep it oiled and greased and silent. Then why would it care if you get what you want or not?

When the government and the people both prefer being silent then why should the vendors and manufacturers bother about us? The attitude they have is quality or not, these people will buy. Right from the days of British Colonialism this has been the attitude.” My product did not get sold anywhere in the world, I am going to India”, and we happily take all the crap that is thrown at us and keep mum. Nobody is going to bother about us. It is we who are getting robbed and plundered, it is we who have to stand up against it and fight for what is ours.