04 KALEIDOSCOPE ERGO Monday, April 20, 2009

Ask your query

I am planning to travel abroad next month
for a vacation. Is there any limit on the for-
eign exchange I can get from my bank? What
THE GOLDEN EGG
laying duck?
are the rules applicable?
Arun Thangavel, Adayar
Dear Arun,
The buying and selling of foreign exchange
in India is governed by FEMA (Foreign Ex-
change Management Act). As per the act there
are various ceilings for the amount of Forex
Gold lying idle in your bank locker can quite literally lays eggs
that you can purchase from Authorised Deal-
ers of RBI. The rules state that if authorised
and give you some additional income
dealers can release Upto $25000 per trip for

Business travel, $10000 for one financial year
for personal trips, Upto $100,000 for medical
visits and for education.
Also the maximum currency you can carry
in the form of notes or currencies is $2000.
Also the maximum that you can buy by way of
payment in Rupees is Upto Rs 50,000/- above
that you can buy forex only using Cheque or
Demand draft.
Do you need some unbiased and professional
solutions to your personal finance issues related
problems? Ask Doctor Finergo. Mail your queries
to finergo@goergo.in, Put subject as Doctor.
S
tate Bank of India has reintro-
duced the Gold Deposit
Scheme (GDS). The scheme
aims to help investors earn in-
terest income by depositing their
gold holdings at the bank. Apart
from the income interest what
makes it even more interesting is the
add-on benefits that come with it.
Egg Laying?
The interest in the scheme is cal-
culated in terms of grams rather
than in rupees. In simpler terms if
you deposit 1000 grams for 1 year,
then you get 10 grams as interest on
maturity. This can be redeemed as

Mini Quiz cash or gold. So your 1000 grams be-

comes 1010! And we never believed
in the golden duck!
Q1: Nifty is the index of which stock market? How the scheme works
New York Stock Exchange Customers can deposit a mini-
National Stock Exchange mum quantity of gold in any form
Bombay Stock Exchange with SBI. The bank will convert the
New Delhi Stock Exchange gold into bars and assay it at the Go-
Q2: What is the booking amount for the vernment of India mint and issue a Apart from the fact that your gold But if we allow for the benefits
most basic model of Tata NANO Gold Deposit Certificate (GDC). The gets multiplied instead of lying idle, gained by fluctuations in the gold
93000 weight indicated on the GDC will be the GDS gives you the investor other price and the rupee-dollar exchange
95000 taken as your deposit. The rate of in- benefits too: the entire interest is tax rates then the return could even be
65000 terest is 1% for 3 years, 1.25% for 4 free; the value of Gold deposited is to the tune of 30% (see table)
87000 years and 1.5% for five year deposits. exempt from wealth tax; the deposits Bottomline
Send your answers to finergo@goergo.in or SMS The interest can be withdrawn an- are exempt from capital gains tax; In case you are planning to keep
your answers to 92813 98889. For example if you nually or allowed to compound an- you save the money you would have gold idle in your bank locker then
choose A as the answer to question 1 and B as nually. Upon maturity the depositor to pay to keep your gold in a locker; the SBI Gold Deposit Scheme could
the answer to question 2 type it as 1A2B and has option to redeem both Principal and the scheme also allows the de- be a better option to keep the gold
send it. Winner will be chosen by lucky draw and Interest in either Rupees or positor to avail of loans. Safe, liquid and growing.
from all correct answers and will get a Parker Gold. On a comparative basis, the 1 to Pradeep Yuvaraj with inputs from
pen. The icing on the cake 1.5 per cent interest looks meager. Nitya Varadarajan
Answers for last week’s mini-quiz
HDFC Standard Life
Asset

Word in Word
SEBI tightens FMP rules
The Securities and Exchange Board of India
has asked Fixed Maturity Plans (FMPs) to dis-
close their monthly portfolios on their web-
sites. This has been done with the intention of
bringing in more transparency and creating
better disclosure norms to help investors
make more informed decisions relating to
their investments in these funds. The initial
trigger for this move was the liquidity crisis
seen in Oct 2008, when many investors started
redeeming their investments in FMPS and
which led to a drop in liquidity of most funds.