After the recent deregulation of NRE rates – deposit rates for Non Resident Accounts – Karnataka Bank offers 9.75% for the “repatriable” (can take it back) NRE account deposits for a year. This is awesome, because NRE Account interest is not taxed in India. In the middle east, govt taxes are zero (or very low) [...]

Posted in Credit Repair, FixedIncome, NRI Comments Off

Every week, the RBI conducts auctions selling 91 day T-Bills and in alternate weeks, 182 day and 364 day T-Bills. These are quite short term and is part of the government borrowing. The yields give you an indication of how expensive credit is – remember this is really short term, and then, sovereign debt, meaning [...]

Posted in ChartOfTheDay, Charts, Credit Repair, FixedIncome Comments Off

Reader Tushar writes in, on the “Banks Sucker You On Automatic Renewals” post. He took the trouble of writing to HDFC Bank (thanks!) and getting a response. We wish to inform that a Fixed deposit is a contract between the Bank and the customer for a given term and at a given interest rate corresponding [...]

Posted in Banks, Credit Repair, FixedIncome Comments Off

Fixed Maturity Plans are being touted as the new way to lock yourself into about 10% yields. But Sandeep Shanbhag mentions why the Direct Tax Code screws the FMP buyer. FMPs are locked in for a period, the biggest that are being sold now are 370 days or so. That is, you get in now, [...]

Posted in Credit Repair, FD, FixedIncome, MutualFunds Comments Off

Updated 25 April 2011: Given the popularity of the post I decided to redo the data until today and see how MIPs have fared. It seems that the data I had was off by a little bit (in terms of dividends, but the results don’t change too much). I’m reworki…

Posted in Credit Repair, FixedIncome, MutualFunds Comments Off

Quick post about CD yields today. CDs are Certificates of Deposit, trade in the fixed income markets at sizes of a crore or more, and are issued by banks. Think of them as big fixed deposits. This data is for 29 March 2011. (Legend – size of the ci…

Posted in Bonds, Credit Repair, FixedIncome Comments Off

I write about how short term debt mutual funds have done way better than fixed deposits and are tax efficient as well, in "Reconsider that Fixed Deposit” (Posted in entirety) "Inflation rears its ugly head again, as RBI prepares to raise …

Posted in Credit Repair, FD, FixedIncome, MutualFunds, Yahoo Comments Off

From the Times: The finance ministry on Monday approved issue of bonds by railways worth Rs 5,000 crore for the financial year ending March 31, 2010. The bonds will be issued by Indian Railway Finance Corporation (IRFC), which will be tax-free,…

Posted in Credit Repair, FixedIncome Comments Off