Pulak 
The Circular That Made Me Check What APDCL Was Doing Differently A circular landed in one of my WhatsApp groups a few weeks back. Nothing dramatic, just a forwarded image of an internal APDCL notice. It showed something that made me stop scrolling: APDCL had already implemented the DA hike with effect from 1st January … Read more
The First Sign: A Salary Slip With Almost Nothing Left EMI deduction limit PSU employee salary: there isn’t a clean answer, and you only find that out the hard way. A colleague of mine once opened his salary slip and found a negative number where his net pay should have been. Not a low number. … Read more
The DA Hike Came, the Arrears Didn’t: Here’s What Actually Happened My organisation follows the Assam government’s DA rate, which is how it works for a lot of state-linked PSU employees. So when the state cabinet cleared a 2% DA hike, from 58% to 60% of basic pay, in the first week of June, I … Read more
Ex-Gratia and Productivity Linked Bonus Are Not the Same Scheme If you’ve ever heard a colleague say “PLB” while describing what your PSU actually pays as ex-gratia, here’s the simplest way to catch the mistake: ask whether everyone got the same rate. If the answer is yes, it can’t be PLB. Productivity Linked Bonus is, … Read more
Why PSU Employees Assume Leave Encashment Is Always Tax-Free A lot of PSU employees treat leave encashment like a quiet bonus, money the company hands you that somehow stays off the tax department’s radar. I hear this most from new joinees who haven’t sat through a payslip with TDS deducted on an encashment payment yet. … Read more
What Actually Happens If You Can’t Pay Your HBA EMI There is no penalty and no late fee, not the way a bank loan default works. Your House Building Advance EMI is deducted directly from your salary by your PSU; you never pay it yourself. If your salary in a given month cannot cover the … Read more
A 35-Year Career, a ₹6,000 Pension — Why This Needed Raising A colleague of mine retired after 35 years of service. Thirty five years of EPF deductions, employer contributions, all of it. His EPS pension came out to six thousand rupees a month. Six thousand. In today’s market, that is not an amount that can … Read more
The wife who came looking for a job A few years back, a colleague in our PSU organisation died in service. He was not old. He had small children. And within weeks of his death, his wife came to the HR office — not to collect documents, but to ask if the organisation could give … Read more
What Is Gratuity and Who Gets It in a PSU? It is not a bonus. It is not a gift from your employer. It is your legal right, a statutory payment you earn by serving an organisation for a minimum period of time. Think of it as a loyalty reward backed by law. The Payment … Read more
Filed Your ITR. Refund Not Coming. What Is Actually Happening? Last year, two people I help with taxes asked me the same question — “I filed weeks ago, where is my refund?” One had an old outstanding tax balance that silently swallowed the refund. The other got a notice asking them to relook at their … Read more