The levy of retrospective tax on the UK's Cairn Energy Plc is a tale of bizarre twists and turns that saw its attached shares being sold in May 2018 amid the passing of the baton from a full-time finance minister to interim one and the talks at the highest level to resolve the dispute, to claims that levy of back taxes was a result of an investigation into Panama Papers leak. The government late last month refunded about Rs 7,900 crore it had collected from selling residual shares of the British firm in its erstwhile India unit, seizing dividend and withholding tax refunds, to settle an eight-year-old dispute that had tarred the country's reputation as an investment destination. But, this did not come about easily. For seven years, the establishment vehemently justified in courts and outside seeking of Rs 10,247 crore in back taxes plus interest and penalty from a firm that gave India its biggest onshore oil discovery.
It is always unwise to invest in sectoral funds alone, says personal finance expert Rahul Goel.
A volatile market tends to throw up investment opportunties for the long term investor. whether you should invest in stocks or deposits, is a function of your needs, profile, risk appetite, return expectation etc, says mutual fund expert Rahul Goel.
Thinking beyond oneself and one's immediate environment is looked upon as a good trait in any person. But when this logic is extended to mutual funds, one might find it surprising. "Shouldn't mutual funds be concentrating on giving returns to the customer?" is a question that comes to mind immediately. Yes, they should.
A blue colour coded box would indicate low risk, yellow would signify a medium risk, while brown would represent schemes with high risk.
Anil Rego, CEO, Right Horizons, answers your personal income tax queries.
If you are about to retire then the government savings schemes would suit you more. A word of caution here: do not take insurance to save tax. take it for the right reason - to secure the future of your dependents in your absence, says personal finance expert Rahul Goel.
Mutual funds are increasingly launching schemes to take advantage of the infrastructure boom, both within the country and globally. The schemes will invest in companies that will benefit from the multi-billion dollar investments required in ports, roads, telecom, construction, engineering and aviation across the world in the coming years.
'MFs acted as reckless lenders and not as prudent investors.' 'Clearly, how debt funds are being run is a systemic issue,' warns Debashis Basu.
Domestic fund houses forge pacts with foreign peers to mop up $7 billion.
Exchanges will have to facilitate a more direct interface between clients and the clearing corporation, bypassing intermediaries such as brokers, under this new proposed framework.
Our advice to investors is that they should adhere to the basics of mutual fund investing and evaluate mutual funds across parameters, including past performance.
Data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India show that in 2010-11 till date, gold ETFs have seen net inflows rise by close to four times, to Rs 1,169 crore (Rs 11.69 billion), compared with Rs 312 crore (Rs 3.12 billion) during the same period last year.
Now that investors are waking up to mutual funds, they should understand a few intricacies of making the best use of that vehicle
Mutual fund equity schemes which only invest in sectors such as banks and fast moving consumer products (FMCG) have emerged top performers across product categories in 2012. But these schemes face stiff challenges to repeat such outperformance in 2013.
In a closed-ended scheme a mutual fund is allowed to charge initial issue expenses of up to 6% of the amount raised to the investor.
Mutual funds provide the right opportunity to the millions of investors
Asset management firms relying heavily on liquid fund investments.
Equity flows turning positive could give fund managers firepower to invest in the markets. This could come in handy as flows from foreign investors have tapered off amid rising bond yields in the US.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs will discuss the proposal to lift the ban on state-owned companies from investing in mutual funds in its weekly meeting on Thursday.
Market regulator SEBI on Wednesday asked mutual funds to disclose investments in equity derivatives and said the combined exposure in equity, debt and derivatives should not exceed the net asset of a scheme.
Will 2022 be a year of contrasting narratives -- one filled with caution and the other with continued optimism?
With stock markets getting into a buoyant mode, mutual funds are stepping up their draft filings with the regulator Sebi for new equity schemes.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Thursday hiked individual limits of mutual funds' investments in overseas equity instruments by $50 million to $150 million.
Fund managers and wealth advisors say that in the long-term diversified equity funds are the best bet.
Market regulator Sebi on Thursday asked mutual fund houses to disclose the details of investor complaints on websites, as well as in annual reports, to enable clients to make more informed decisions.
Mutual Funds added more than 7 lakh investors into equity schemes in August. Despite this, redemptions out-weighed investments in equity funds.
In a chat on rediff.com on Thursday, market expert Vinay Mahajan offered some valuable tips about investing in the stock markets.
The decline in MF assets follows profit-booking seen on the bourses and jittery market sentiment that led to investors pulling out their money from equity-linked MF schemes.
'In the overall global portfolio, India's weighting has come down in the past seven months.'
Investors got the upper hand in 2009, while fund houses struggled to cope with regulatory changes and upheavals in the economy, even as the industry shrugged off recession blues with its assets hitting an all time high of Rs 8 lakh crore (Rs 8 trillion).
Investors can now park money in practically all overseas firms via domestic mutual funds (MFs). The removal of this key deterrent will encourage investment in the funds.
Omkeshwar Singh, head, Rank MF, a mutual fund investment platform, answers your queries.
Earlier, distributors were assured of at least 2.25 per cent fees when retail investors bought any equity scheme. For instance, if a cheque of Rs 100 was given to the distributor, Rs 97.75 was invested and the rest Rs 2.25 went to the distributor as commission. Sebi's no entry load decision means distributors are no longer assured of a particular amount of commission because fund houses cannot make it mandatory for the investor to pay the same.
Now that the stock markets are in a treacherous arena these pointers will help you keep your head above the water.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances