Tips on saving Petrol while driving

Don't go over 60 Kilometer Per Hour Speed. For Every 8 Kilometer Per Hour over this speed you lose 10% of your fuel economy. Slowing down saves petrol.

Maintain steady speed. Do not accelerate unnecessarily especially when you know the route and know that very soon you will be reaching a signal. Keep coasting at a steady speed.

When going down hill or on a slope led the vehicle travel in Neutral. You can also turn off the engine, but be aware that doing so can be risky if power is required to control the vehicle. For example you may be having a power assisted steering that may not work when vehicle is switched off.

Take a longer route if you are sure of a smooth ride. Avoid stop and start traffic. Taking a longer route saves petrol even though you have taken longer to travel and clocked more kilometers rather than getting stuck in traffic.

Keep a close watch on your tyre pressure. Under inflated tyres lead to higher fuel consumption.

Keep changing Engine Oil more often than recommended. Use thinner oil as it promotes engine efficiency. Replace oil as it ages to maintain low viscosity.

Do a car pool where ever possible.

For a Change Left is Right

Global oil price rise has lead to oil marketing companies seeking an increase in oil prices of Petrol, Diesel, Kerosene and LPG and the Government of India has obliged them. Petrol prices have been increased by 10% and similar price hikes have been done across the spectrum.

The Left Parties have been vociferous in terming this price hike as a loot of the common man. Are they right when they make this accusations.

Let us remove the wheat from the chaff.

India imports 70% of its oil requirement. 30% of the demand is met locally.

But you will be surprised to know that ONGC sells the 30% of the local crude to the oil marketing companies at International Rates. Thus we are paying ourselves a higher price for buying oil from ourselves for ourselves. Does that make any sense to you? If it does not, it does not make any sense to the Left Parties too. When ONGC charges the full international price, it makes insane profit at your expense and later on pays the profit to the government as dividend. But in the process ONGC gets access to funds that do not rightfully belong to it in the first place. It has the liberty to spend these funds as it wishes as these are its profits.

Secondly, Petrol costs 20.16 at the refinery gate, oil marketing companies, dealer profits, taxes, duties and commission add another 25.36 to it before it is sold to consumers at 45.52. (Source Hindustan Times, Business Pages 5th June 2008).

Can someone explain how the oil companies are losing money when the cost of Petrol to them is just 20.16 at refinery gate?

If all the taxes and duties were to be removed from Petrol, it would become available at let's say 27 rupees per liter.

If Petrol was available at such a price you can imagine the boost the economy will get. In effect when oil prices rise, economies suffer leading to lower tax collection and lower living standards.

For the government it is a catch22 situation. And for the moment I firmly believe that the Left is Right unless someone can show me otherwise.

The Loot is over

For 24 Years, Private and Foreign Banks such as Citibank, Standard Chartered Bank, ICICI, HDFC, HSBC, Kotak, ABN Amro, GE Countrywide, IndiaBulls, etc. have flouted interest rate regimen and looted the people of India in the guise of giving soft loans at exorbitant rates of interest.

These rates have ranged from 20% to as high as 80% all in the name of unregulated interest regime allowed by the Reserve Bank of India.

As an association of people utilizing credit from these banks, we have been petitioning RBI to stop this practice of giving usurious loans to unsuspecting people. We have staged countless demonstrations in front of these banks and have maintained constant pressure on the RBI since 2003.

Under the able leadership of Mr. Vijay Kamble and the hard work of his team CCAI has been finally successful in getting the monolith RBI to take note of the problem plaguing the system.

RBI has now pegged the maximum rate of interest at 18% per annum diminishing. What this means is that if your loan is at any other rate, you can have it reduced to this rate as anything more than this is considered usurious by RBI.

We are seeking a similar reduction on credit card rates too and very soon you can expect relief from high interest rates there too!

CCAI has been working tirelessly since 2003 for protecting the exploitation of the general public at the hands of MNC and Private Banks. Join us in our fight against the heavily biased banking system that favors the bank and penalizes the common man.

Call us now!

Credit Consumers Association of India
3/141, M.H.B. Colony, Ram Mandir Road,
Kher Nagar, Bandra (East), Mumbai 400051
Tel: 91-22-26474857, 26471908, Email: ccai.mumbai@gmail.com

5 Ways to Boost Profits

Brad Sugars: Startup Basics
25, 2008 5 Ways to Boost Profits No matter how many sales you make, your business will struggle if you don't watch your margins.

One of the biggest mistakes made by startups is to confuse making sales with making money. New business owners seem to think that business is about busy-ness--that is, how many times the cash register rings. They fail to take even simple steps to ensure they earn enough to cover their costs as well as take home a healthy paycheck. Without that, you may as well be working for someone else

Read rest of the Article here

Bombay or Mumbai?

Political parties and Political leaders resort to the Son-of-the-Soil theory whenever they find it convenient. Recently, Mumbai (formerly Bombay) has seen the ugly dance of Mr. Raj Thackery who is trying his level best to use the Marathi-Manoos (Marathi-Person) plank to threaten all outsiders (those from other states and those who have yet to adopt Marathi as their language of choice) to leave Mumbai.

Earlier, his uncle, the Shiv Sena Supremo Balasaheb Thackerey, used the very same plank to further his own political cause. Also, Balasaheb has successfully targetted various specific communities and allegedly extracted a huge fees from those threatened to look the other way.

With elections around the corner, every political party in Maharashtra is trying to shore up its vote bank. Shiv Sena workers have now gone on a rampage and are defacing names where ever Bombay appears. They have already done this to Bombay Scottish and have destroyed the sign boards in front of Bombay Dyeing Showrooms.

They may next target Times of India which has a supplement named Bombay Times. What about targetting the Bombay High Court which continues to use the name Bombay instead of Mumbai?

Everyone on the street knows that Mumbai has not really improved just because its name was changed from Bombay to Mumbai, similarly Bangalore has not improved because it is now called Bengalaru. After 60 years of independence, Political leaders still feel they can fool all the people all the time!

It is time people from all walks of life boycotted such politicians that attempt to divide us on the basis of caste, creed, religion, language and state.

How to check whether your flat in on forest land

There is huge confusion about the Forest Land Issue in Mumbai, where flat owners have been left with little or no information about the legality of their flats.

The state has failed to provide information about the plot numbers to the public at large. However, the state has provided this information to the Registrar's office. Thus when you go to register your flat, the registrar will check your flat details and may refuse to register the flat if it is on an affected plot.

Prospective flat buyers can call the following numbers 022-22634567, 022-26891161, 022-22630742 or visit their nearest collectors office (of the place where they intend to buy the flat) to find out whether they are buying flats that are located on forest land or not.

Buyers are cautioned that there exists two lists of plots, one official and other being circulated by conniving real estate agents and builders to hoodwink the buyers into buying flats that are actually on forest land. Extreme caution is advised in buying flats in these areas. As a thumb rule if you buying a flat that lies on the east of the Western Express Highway, Ghodbunder Road or West of the LBS Marg, there are chances that the plots may be in forest land and may best be avoided.

Flat Buyers Unite...

Today a report in Times of India talks about Builders uniting and forming a cartel to keep real estate prices artificially inflated till Diwali. The reason being citied for such a move is that the builders have purchased their land at very high prices and will suffer losses if they chose to reduce prices.

What a lot of horse shit! Who told them to go and buy land at such prices? Property prices have risen by 300% all over the city making it extremely difficult for a middle class family to own a house. Coupled with very high interest rates ranging between 11.5 to 12.5% per annum, the middle class can only dream of owning a house.

A 800 square feet flat costs 24,00,000 in distant Mira Road. On top of this the stamp duty and registration charges further inflate the price. Builders are illegally selling open and covered parking spaces too! For a final price of 27,00,000 you will get a loan of 23,00,000 and at 1200/- per lac per month the installment would come to 27,600/- This should be 40% of your take home salary, meaning that you should have a salary of 45,000 per month. You have to pay this installment for 20 years and if you opt for floating rate of interest, it would mean that the 20 years can easily stretch to 23 or 25 years.

It is therefore time for the buyers to unite and boycott purchase of any property that is expensive.

How do you decide what is expensive? Typically the best of construction costs 1200/- per square feet. Given the variable of land cost and allowing decent profit of 30% a 800 square feet flat in Mira Road should cost about 2300/- per square feet. Therefore a fair price for such a flat should be around 18,40,000 and not more. Please be aware construction costs vary between 550/- per square feet to 1200/- per square feet, therefore for a unscrupulous builder there is still a very big margin to play with.

Buyers should decide to wait out the sellers and only purchase flats when prices become reasonable. For example a flat is Vadodara is being sold @ 1275/- per square feet. Obviously the seller there too is making money! Why such high costs in Mumbai? Reason being greed of the builders who have bought land left-right and center in the hope of selling the same at a hefty profit but now their plans are coming undone. It will be very interesting to watch as the situation develops.