“
Welcome Mr. Mehta, What can I do for you ?” said Jenny, a relationship manager working with a leading private sector bank, to the bank customer Mr. Mehta, who himself is a tax consultant.
“I just wanted to deposit these cheques to my account” said Mr. Mehta.
“That will be done Sir. And I would also like to tell you something about a very good tax saving product which will give you insurance as well as good returns.” Said Jenny.
“Is it another ULIP you are talking about Jenny?” asked Mr. Mehta.
“Sir, this is a very good product specially designed for people like you.” Was Jenny’s confused reply to a straight question.
“ Yes, but is it a ULIP?” Mr. Mehta asked firmly this time.
“Yes Sir”. Jenny had no alternative than to confess this time. “But you need to pay the premium only for 5 years”
“Ok. But do you know that as per the draft DTC, the contribution made towards ULIP might not qualify for tax saving. So in effect, it would be mandatory for me to pay the premium for this ULIP for 5 years and invest separately for saving tax.” Asked Mr. Mehta.
“No Sir, when you are buying a ULIP now, the Company is entering into a contract with you that it will give you tax benefit for 5 years. So, DTC or no-DTC, you will continue getting a tax deduction on the premium paid towards this ULIP.” Said Jenny.
“Are you Sure?” Mr. Mehta was astonished. “Is it a Company that decides whether you get a tax deduction or the Government decides it?”
“The Company” Jenny said in a low and hesitant tone.
Mr. Mehta stared at her with anger and surprise, when Deepa, a colleague of Jenny, came to her rescue, saying, “Sir, you are right, it is the government that gives a tax deduction and not the company.”
“Yes, and thus, I would like to wait till the time there is clarity on this one, and only then I would commit myself to such a product wherein I need to compulsorily pay for next 5 years. Had it been a one-time invest product, like an ELSS, I would have definitely invested in it.” Said Mr. Mehta.
Jenny was little disappointed. But she didn’t give up so easily.
“Mr. Mehta, you also have an HUF account with us. Don’t you?” She asked.
“I do. So?” said Mr. Mehta.
“You might be aware that the tax saving limit u/s 80C is Rs. 2 Lakhs for HUF accounts. So you can make some tax saving investments from that account” Said Jenny.
“What??” Mr. Mehta was really angry by now. “Ms. Jenny, just for your information, I am myself a tax consultant, and would like to update you that the tax saving limit for HUFs is the same as individuals, which is Rs. 1 Lakh u/s 80C and Rs. 20,000 u/s 80CCF.”
“Ohh is it?? But I remember ‘SOMEONE’ telling me that the tax saving limit for an HUF is Rs. 2 Lakhs” Jenny was shaken by now.
“SOMEONE ??? And who is that SOMEONE ?? Ma’am, you are a responsible officer in a reputed bank. People from non-finance background trust your words like anything, and you have no other business than to mis-guide people. Thankfully, I am a tax consultant myself, or else you would have successfully cheated me. Are you a Banker or a Cheater?” said the fuming Mr. Mehta.
Jenny had a simple escape route. She just had to apologize and say that she will recheck these things. But on his way back from the bank, Mr. Mehta was thinking, “Times have now come that even your banker might not be shy of cheating you. Do your homework before trusting his words blindly.”
So beware of all such “Jennys” when you visit your bank next time.
We look forward to your feedback and comments on the above article. Please feel free to contact us on saurabh@nidhiinvestments.com if you have any questions.
(The views mentioned in the article are personal opinion of the author. The characters used in the article are real and names are changed for protection of identity.)
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Prof. Saurabh Bajaj is an Author, Mentor, Motivational Speaker and Wealth Planner.
He has done his MBA from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS) Mumbai, one of the top 10 management institutes in India. He holds the prestigious FRM (Financial Risk Manager) degree awarded by Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP), USA. Till date, there are less than 15,000 professionals in the world, who have been honored with this degree. He has also been awarded CFGP (Chartered Financial Goal Planner) Certification by AAFM (American Academy of Financial Management).
After his MBA, he joined J P Morgan, the second largest Investment Bank in the world. He has worked with J P Morgan as Risk Analyst for more than two years.
Prof. Bajaj also holds an Advisory certification awarded by AMFI (Association of Mutual Funds of India). During his stint at Bombay Stock Exchange, he has handled Investment Management and Treasury operations of the BSE Corpus. He has set up an entrepreneurship venture in the field of Wealth Planning and Investment Consulting under the name “Nidhi Investments” and holds the profile of CEO.
Prof. Bajaj sits on the Expert Panel of CAClubindia.com and MBAClubindia.com as Investment Expert.
He is actively involved in investor education through his blog www.professorbajaj.com which has a readership from 78 Countries all over the world. His articles are also regularly published in caclubindia.com , mbaclubindia.com , totalca.com , charteredclub.com, bankbazaar.com and lawyersclubindia.com .
He has been awarded the title of “Best Article Writer” from caclubIndia.com in Jan 2012 and has been selected amongst “Top 5 Technical Writers” from all over India in Feb 2013.
He has been invited by various TV Channels like SPIN TV, CNBC TV18, UTV Bloomberg Etc for programs like "Expert Advice" , "What Markets Want ", "Budget Analysis" etc.
He has been invited by Several organisations like Lions Club, Rotary Club, Agrawal Welfare Foundation, Rajasthan Mandal, Agroha Vikas Trust, Union MF, UTI MF, Arthamitra Gurukulam, Vidyalankar Institute of Technology etc for expert lecture on "Smart Investing", "Life is A Celebration", "Financial Freedom", "The Digital IFA" etc.
He was ranked 8th Merit at All India level NMAT which got him selected for MBA programme at NMIMS, Mumbai. He did his MBA with Capital Markets as his specialisation.
Soft Skills has become an inevitable part of every selection process and teaching learning process these days. The students from small towns and tier II cities, in spite of being talented and well equipped with technical skills, are seen struggling in the selection process. This is because of their lack of exposure to these soft skills. Mr. Bajaj has a zeal for training candidates to develop these skills and has been imparting the same on since last two years. This zeal and passion inspired him to set up his own firm called “Knowledge Circle” which aims to train candidates for soft skills.
Till date, he has trained more than 5000 participants from over 220 organizations across various fields of soft skills.
He has been associated with MSBTE (Maharashtra State Board of Technical Education) to conduct Soft skills training workshop for the faculties of Polytechnic Colleges in Entire Maharashtra (Mumbai Region, Pune Region, Aurangabad Region and Nagpur Region) since last 8 years.
He has also been associated with ICAI (Institute of Chartered Accountants of India) for training CA Students on various topics related to Communications skills, Group Discussions etc.
He was invited by Fr. Agnel Polytechnic College, Vashi for a motivational workshop for faculties. He was also invited by Vivekanad Polytechnic College for "Communication Skills and Email Etiquette" training for non-teaching staff.
Apart from these, he has conducted “Capacity Building Soft Skills workshop for Faculties” at ITI Gunj, ITI Pusad, ITI Digras and ITI Umarkhed. This was the first ever soft skills workshop for faculties in the history of ITI’s in Vidarbha. He was also invited by Shivaji Education Society to conduct similar Soft skills workshops for the faculties and office staff of Shivaji Junior College Pusad, Shivaji High School Pusad, Shivaji Vidyalaya Belora and Shivaji Vidyalaya Bhojla.
He has conducted training workshop on “Effective Presentation Skills” for the relationship managers of HDFC Mutual Fund, Andheri Branch, Mumbai.
He has also been invited at College of Management and Computer Science, Yavatmal, College of Dairy Technology, Warud, B N College of Engineering, Pusad, B D College of Engineering, Wardha, College of Engineering and Technology, Akola, Dr.N.P.Hirani Institute of Polytechnic, Pusad etc. for the Guest lecture on “Developing Interview Skills”.
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A close to heart Article !! I could actually imagine the entire scene happening in front of me. Everytime I visit the bank, something of this sort happens and I end up investing in something they sell, thinking that how can my banker lie ??
Need to be careful from now. Thanks to Prof bajaj.
Thanks for the compliments Sir.
This is actually a real story and it keeps happening with so many of us everyday.
Thats why I thought I should bring these facts to light. Glad to know that you liked it.
Thanks for your visit and feedback. Looking forward to more in future.
Nothing else can describe the true nature of so called bank’s ‘Relationship Manager’ as described in this article. Suprisingly, specially in private banks, first line customer facing ‘executives’ don’t have knowledge of banking, laws even policies of their own banks.
Everytime someone from bank calls and say I am your new relationship manager and want to meet you. First few times gave them time and all they did was trying to sell ‘Insurance / Investment’ (read ULIP) and have to time to understand my investment needs. I stopped entertaining them.
Life is not long enough to make all mistakes, either you learn by experience or reading Professor’s blog.
Very well Said Sir.
All these So-called “Relationship Managers” are no less than sophisticated Cheaters well trained (read ill-trained) to cheat you.
One needs to be aware of these “Cheaters”.
Thank you so much for the compliments and I will make sure that I am able to keep up to your expectations. THanks again for your visit and feedback. Looking forward to more in future.