Indusind live on IMPS-ATM sub product

            Indusind Bank has tapped one more eTransactions opportunity, to increase the footfalls at its ATMs.

            It has gone live on (Immediate Payment Service) IMPS-ATM sub product. This means Indusind Bank customers can access the IMPS facility through the bank’s ATMs.  

            Once Indusind bank starts advertising the same, across various media channels, the transactions volumes will increase.

            One recent product which Indusind Bank has launched is the ‘Super Savers Pack’, for its saving bank customers.

French Customers Able to reload air time Minutes on Friends/Family Mobile Phones via PayPal Mobile Reload

TransferTo, the global airtime leader owned by payment provider company Ingenico, has inked a contract with another global player i.e PayPal. PayPal leveraging on TransferTos’ global airtime remittance hub has launched, PayPal Mobile Reload.

          The PayPal Mobile Reload enables French Customers to recharge their family/friends mobile phones balances globally.

          This is the first step to tap the $300 billion French cross-border remittance market. The worldwide market of such customers is 200 million+ people. Initially, the target is to monetize mobile-to-mobile minute sharing. Well, this is very common in India. Normally, parents top-up their children’s mobile phone with airtime, so that they can be in touch with their children. The other category is airtime top-up by their friends, so they can continue to talk or SMS messages.

          What PayPal has now done is to enable French customers top-up airtime to mobile customers around the world, and not only restrict to French mobile numbers.

The easy way to reload mobile devices!

·         Users simply have to go to PayPal Mobile Reload, and select the recipient’s country, enter the recipient’s mobile phone number, the amount they want to send to their mobile phone, and finally, pay with PayPal.

·         The mobile phone is reloaded instantly.

·         Once the reload has been completed, the sender will receive an email from PayPal confirming the transaction and the recipient will receive a text message.

Six Polish banks join hands for a mobile payments system to take on card schemes

            Six Banks in Poland viz Alior Bank, Bank Millennium, Bank Zachodni WBK, BRE Bank, ING Bank Śląski and PKO Bank Polsk, have a 70% share in Poland’s electronic banking market. These 6 banks have joined hands to form a joint venture. 

          The joint venture main aim is to define a common standard for mobile payments, which if successful, will cut down the reliance on Visa and MasterCard in the Polish eBanking arena.  The new standards will be developed under the guidance of the national regulator.

The offering is modeled around PKO Bank's IKO app, which was launched in March and lets customers make in-store payments and ATM withdrawals by keying in a code generated by the app. Customers can also send money to recipients by entering their mobile phone number, like Barclays Pingit in the UK.

The proposed system is designed to bypass card firms, a fact that PKO's MD of electronic banking, Wojciech Bolanowski, admitted at MobeyDay last month, Visa was "not happy about".

Bank Millennium CEO Boguslaw Kott has openly admitted that the group is challenging Visa and MasterCard, telling Reuters: "This will be a more competitive system compared to the credit card system. The credit card system will probably be put under a question mark in the future."

            The differentiator between the new Polish Collaboration in comparison with like Spain and the UK, is that the Polish system has the backing of only financial institutions and not a combination of telcos and financial institutions.

            None of the six will have a dominating position, each using the same platform and then adding their own extra features, while the group says it is also open to bringing other banks and acquirers onboard.

Indian Taxpayers to get an unique number for complaints. No, this number is not mandatory

            Indian taxpayers are familiar with PAN (Permanent Accounts Number), TAN (Tax Deduction and Collection Account Number), UTN (Unique Transaction Number). In the near future, they will be familiar with UAN (Unique Acknowledgment Number).

The UAN will be provided to the set of Income Tax Payers, who have a grievance regarding their IT refunds and tax computations, by IT Department, when they lodge a complaint with IT authorities.

            The added bonus is the promise to resolve the complaint within two months time.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes, which frames policies and rules for the I-T Department, has asked all its Chief Commissioners across the country to ensure these new facilities for taxpayers with “immediate effect”.

The CBDT, issued these directions on July 5 after the Delhi High Court recently passed orders with regard to finetuning procedures followed by the Department on receipt and disposal of rectification applications’ which are filed by taxpayers under Section 154 of the I-T Act.

Whether the taxpayer files his rectification application:

• By ordinary post,
• by hand or
• online,

The receipt counter of the department will generate a special and unique acknowledgement number for the taxpayer by which he or she will be assured of solving the grievance within a stipulated time.

The taxpayer has to quote this number in any further communication with the department.

It has also been instructed by CBDT that rectification applications are “decided as far as possible within a period of two months from the end of the month in which application is received.”

The CBDT has also asked the I-T Department to inform the taxpayer as soon as his or her grievance is disposed of.

In cases of e-filing of tax returns that reach the Central Processing Centre of the department in Bangalore same procedures would be followed by them and in case the CPC is unable to do so, it will immediately inform the assessing officer of the taxpayer to take remedial action.

In order to plug all loopholes, the CBDT has also directed the department that all such receipts of rectification applications from taxpayers will have to be mandatorily updated in the online rectification register, which can be inspected by supervisory officers. In case of postal complaints, these should be compulsorily recorded in the official diary maintained by the I-T authority.

Punjab national bank has gone live on imps using account no and ifs Code

          The link to Business Responsibility Report on the banks website makes for an interesting read.  I am not sure, what motivated PNB to publish this report. It would be great, if all Banks publish similar reports on a yearly basis.

          Another only one of its kind initiative by PNB has the foresight to nurture PNBIIT (Punjab National Bank institute of information technology), a premier institute of information technology in the area of banking, finance and insurance.

          Through its ADBT Program, has created a pool of competent techno-bankers for Banking & IT Sector by imparting in-depth knowledge and expertise to the students.

          One important announcement on PNB’s website is a notice on charges for SMS Alerts.

The charges will commence for transactions w.e.f.01.07.2013 and the charges are Rs15/- per quarter

 However, following categories of accounts have been exempted for SMS Alerts charges:

1 Senior Citizen accounts

2 Staff accounts

3 Retired staff accounts

4 Vidyarthi accounts

5 Mitra accounts