Once you start earning, you get a fixed amount of money at the end of each month. When I was in GP, I used to get my salary on the 26th of each month, but it's the 28th for banglalink. It took me a while to get used to the lost(!) 2 days initially, and I still feel nostalgic and bluesy on the 26th day of each month.
Every year, we have to go through the painful ritual of paying income tax. Someone who never paid a tax will possibly think that it's a rightful duty of a concerned citizen to pay his taxes on time, and with accuracy. However, only the affected one knows how it feels to see a 5k or 6k deduction from his payslip due to income tax! In order to alleviate the pain of paying the hefty tax amounts, our Government (just like many other governments) have a policy whereby if one does a certain amount of investment in government savings schemes, he or she can file an income tax refund claim.
Sounds easy, right? Invest, and claim refunds. Actually it's not simple at all. The last date within a fiscal year (June to June) for doing this investment is 30th June. This year, fortunately(!) 29th and 30th June decided to be Friday and Saturday; consecutively. Me being one of the most active person's alive, realized on the 26th day that something needs to be done about this investment amount. So I went to the HR department and inquired about the tax amount. They informed me that I have to invest xx amount of Taka. So thunder struck me--I didn't have that much cash in my account, and pay day was still 2 days away. On 27th I thought it was already too late to encash a FDR, to submit the cheque to Standard Chartered Bank, to withdraw the amount as cash or pay order and to buy the shonchoypotro. So I kind of gave up on the whole idea of doing the investment and claiming refund.
However, someone told me that I can save around 20K if I can do the investment. I weighted the possibilities--"taking a hell lot of hassle and attempting the investment" and "doing nothing".
In my whole life, I always hated; or to be more precise, feared doing nothing. I hate to give up. A very old friend of mine gave me a testimonial on Orkut that I never give up. So in order to honor his statement, I decided to give it a try. Ray of hope for me was that I heard a rumor that banks might remain open on Friday and Saturday as per a "yet to be released" government circular.
I was going to take a leave; an annual leave starting from Thursday and continuing till Monday. So I chose Thursday to be my investment day. However, there was one problem. I had a mid term exam on the same day, at 6 PM, and I could not study a bit due to the chaos caused by the arrival of my khala, khalu and cousins from the united states of America. I can go in to that story, but that'd deviate us from money talk.
Even in the morning, I was partly undecided about going through the apparently torturous ritual of investment. I talked to a friend of mine who was working in IDLC. He assured me that my FDR could be encashed via a cheque in favor of SCB, and with his assurance, I started towards IDLC at around 11. Though I was told to go earlier, I failed to do so because the car was not available and I, too, spent a lot of time sorting options.
However, luck decided to go against me. I found out that the car was almost out of gasoline, and hence I had to go to a CNG filling station near the komolapur stadium! Why did I go there? My driver told me that it's the closest filling station en route to Motijheel. So me and you and the dog named boo..err. I mean me, the car and the driver went there. It was really hot that day, and I was sweating all over. I brought the presentation slides and the book with me, but the unbearable heat and constant flow of sweat prevented me from studying. I couldn't turn on the air conditioner in fear of being stranded in the queue without being able to move ahead. After a while I developed a bad headache.
At around 12 PM, I managed to get my car's gas tank filled. I reached motijheel within 45 minutes, but it took me another 15 minutes to find out Hadi Mansion, the place where IDLC is situated.
When I managed to get a SCB check, it was too late to submit it in the bank. It was 3:05 PM, and the bank is supposed to be closed by 3 PM. The guard wouldn't let me enter through the front gate. However, I managed to sneak through the rear entrance.
By then, I was totally exhausted and hungry like hell. I saw there was a huge queue in the line where I could stand and deposit my cheque. I asked an official whether bank will be open the next day, and he gave me a positive answer. I left the bank, boarded the car and came back home.
I had my lunch, and felt totally exhausted. I turned on the PC and started playing my favorite Acoustic Alchemy tunes. I felt drowsy, and I took a mini nap. I thought about studying a bit, but I rejected the idea. Our teacher had an idea of taking the exam, and then taking a 2 hour class. I entered the room 10 minutes late. I was busy drinking tea till 5:15, and hence I got a bit delayed. I realized that the exam hasn't started yet.
I got the question paper, and hesitated a bit regarding 2 questions. But in general, the exam was quite easy, and I managed to answer all of'em before the time ended. I didn't attend the class. I headed towards Dhanmondi instead; where all of us cousins were supposed to meet up in Chicken King and have dinner. I had a good time with all the picchis. There were 11 of us, only 3 mami's and 8 cousins (!), age ranging from 2 years to 27 years...lolz. No, I am not the oldest one, there's another cousin who's a bit older than me.
I had to drop back few of the attendees to our nanir bari at Mohammadpur, and then I brought the three American cousins, another cousin and my sister to home. When I finally reached home at around 11:30 PM, the extremely long day almost came to an end. But no, God had different plans. I came to know that I had to sleep elsewhere; not in my room. So when I finally found a place to lie down, it was 12:38 AM.
I slept, and I slept, and I slept....a very sound sleep in a long, long time.
Meanwhile, anticipating the need, I ordered to reprint 10 copies of my photograph on Wednesday. I was supposed to collect them after 8 PM, but realizing that I won't be able to collect them, I wanted to leave the receipt with mom, so she could collect the photos. I knew I ran out of photographs, and I also knew that I'd need them for this investment ritual. Alas! I forgot to leave the receipt with mom, and little did I know what disaster that was going to cause!
On Friday, I went to SCB and deposited the cheque to be encashed against my account. I also collected a form for the shonchoypotro from SCB. They were directly selling it, and SCB informed me that it was the last chance for me to invest, as they won't be collecting shonchoypotro forms from the next day onwards. I came back home, and found only one good photograph of mine. I searched, searched and searched, and eventually found another photo. But this one had a NSU seal on it, and the SCB guys mildly grudged about it.
However, luck was on my side this time, and it worked fine. They accepted the form, and I was done with the investment bit by 1 PM.
Life is beautiful as long as you refuse to give up!
Every year, we have to go through the painful ritual of paying income tax. Someone who never paid a tax will possibly think that it's a rightful duty of a concerned citizen to pay his taxes on time, and with accuracy. However, only the affected one knows how it feels to see a 5k or 6k deduction from his payslip due to income tax! In order to alleviate the pain of paying the hefty tax amounts, our Government (just like many other governments) have a policy whereby if one does a certain amount of investment in government savings schemes, he or she can file an income tax refund claim.
Sounds easy, right? Invest, and claim refunds. Actually it's not simple at all. The last date within a fiscal year (June to June) for doing this investment is 30th June. This year, fortunately(!) 29th and 30th June decided to be Friday and Saturday; consecutively. Me being one of the most active person's alive, realized on the 26th day that something needs to be done about this investment amount. So I went to the HR department and inquired about the tax amount. They informed me that I have to invest xx amount of Taka. So thunder struck me--I didn't have that much cash in my account, and pay day was still 2 days away. On 27th I thought it was already too late to encash a FDR, to submit the cheque to Standard Chartered Bank, to withdraw the amount as cash or pay order and to buy the shonchoypotro. So I kind of gave up on the whole idea of doing the investment and claiming refund.
However, someone told me that I can save around 20K if I can do the investment. I weighted the possibilities--"taking a hell lot of hassle and attempting the investment" and "doing nothing".
In my whole life, I always hated; or to be more precise, feared doing nothing. I hate to give up. A very old friend of mine gave me a testimonial on Orkut that I never give up. So in order to honor his statement, I decided to give it a try. Ray of hope for me was that I heard a rumor that banks might remain open on Friday and Saturday as per a "yet to be released" government circular.
I was going to take a leave; an annual leave starting from Thursday and continuing till Monday. So I chose Thursday to be my investment day. However, there was one problem. I had a mid term exam on the same day, at 6 PM, and I could not study a bit due to the chaos caused by the arrival of my khala, khalu and cousins from the united states of America. I can go in to that story, but that'd deviate us from money talk.
Even in the morning, I was partly undecided about going through the apparently torturous ritual of investment. I talked to a friend of mine who was working in IDLC. He assured me that my FDR could be encashed via a cheque in favor of SCB, and with his assurance, I started towards IDLC at around 11. Though I was told to go earlier, I failed to do so because the car was not available and I, too, spent a lot of time sorting options.
However, luck decided to go against me. I found out that the car was almost out of gasoline, and hence I had to go to a CNG filling station near the komolapur stadium! Why did I go there? My driver told me that it's the closest filling station en route to Motijheel. So me and you and the dog named boo..err. I mean me, the car and the driver went there. It was really hot that day, and I was sweating all over. I brought the presentation slides and the book with me, but the unbearable heat and constant flow of sweat prevented me from studying. I couldn't turn on the air conditioner in fear of being stranded in the queue without being able to move ahead. After a while I developed a bad headache.
At around 12 PM, I managed to get my car's gas tank filled. I reached motijheel within 45 minutes, but it took me another 15 minutes to find out Hadi Mansion, the place where IDLC is situated.
When I managed to get a SCB check, it was too late to submit it in the bank. It was 3:05 PM, and the bank is supposed to be closed by 3 PM. The guard wouldn't let me enter through the front gate. However, I managed to sneak through the rear entrance.
By then, I was totally exhausted and hungry like hell. I saw there was a huge queue in the line where I could stand and deposit my cheque. I asked an official whether bank will be open the next day, and he gave me a positive answer. I left the bank, boarded the car and came back home.
I had my lunch, and felt totally exhausted. I turned on the PC and started playing my favorite Acoustic Alchemy tunes. I felt drowsy, and I took a mini nap. I thought about studying a bit, but I rejected the idea. Our teacher had an idea of taking the exam, and then taking a 2 hour class. I entered the room 10 minutes late. I was busy drinking tea till 5:15, and hence I got a bit delayed. I realized that the exam hasn't started yet.
I got the question paper, and hesitated a bit regarding 2 questions. But in general, the exam was quite easy, and I managed to answer all of'em before the time ended. I didn't attend the class. I headed towards Dhanmondi instead; where all of us cousins were supposed to meet up in Chicken King and have dinner. I had a good time with all the picchis. There were 11 of us, only 3 mami's and 8 cousins (!), age ranging from 2 years to 27 years...lolz. No, I am not the oldest one, there's another cousin who's a bit older than me.
I had to drop back few of the attendees to our nanir bari at Mohammadpur, and then I brought the three American cousins, another cousin and my sister to home. When I finally reached home at around 11:30 PM, the extremely long day almost came to an end. But no, God had different plans. I came to know that I had to sleep elsewhere; not in my room. So when I finally found a place to lie down, it was 12:38 AM.
I slept, and I slept, and I slept....a very sound sleep in a long, long time.
Meanwhile, anticipating the need, I ordered to reprint 10 copies of my photograph on Wednesday. I was supposed to collect them after 8 PM, but realizing that I won't be able to collect them, I wanted to leave the receipt with mom, so she could collect the photos. I knew I ran out of photographs, and I also knew that I'd need them for this investment ritual. Alas! I forgot to leave the receipt with mom, and little did I know what disaster that was going to cause!
On Friday, I went to SCB and deposited the cheque to be encashed against my account. I also collected a form for the shonchoypotro from SCB. They were directly selling it, and SCB informed me that it was the last chance for me to invest, as they won't be collecting shonchoypotro forms from the next day onwards. I came back home, and found only one good photograph of mine. I searched, searched and searched, and eventually found another photo. But this one had a NSU seal on it, and the SCB guys mildly grudged about it.
However, luck was on my side this time, and it worked fine. They accepted the form, and I was done with the investment bit by 1 PM.
Life is beautiful as long as you refuse to give up!
