I refer to “Harassed by Tax Authorities” by Sucheta Dalal (MoneyLIFE, 22nd May). Strange are the ways of Service Tax Department, Delhi, and the finance minister must know how small service-providers, who are out of the ambit of Service Tax and wish to surrender their registration certificate, are being harassed by the receiving clerk at the Service Tax Department. He refused to accept it for...

Refer to “The IPL Circus” (MoneyLIFE, 22nd May). First the Bollywood stars slapped Indian cricket by auction of cricketers and now Harbhajan slapped Sreesanth - so there is nothing new! Yes, the mega opening of the IPL match at Bangaluru by parading half-nude girls as cheer-leaders during a match has made a tamasha of serious cricket. A sport is not only about entertainment but also involves...

In our issue of 29 March 2007, we had pointed out the attractiveness of bank fixed deposits (FDs) against fixed maturity plans (FMPs) of mutual funds. The gradual rise in interest rates put the shine back in debt instruments, especially for risk-averse investors. Banks offer anywhere between 9%-10% on  FD schemes and the average FMP earned about 5% when we did our analysis. The change in the...