Helps employees increase take-home salary by upto Rs. 80,000
Investment of US$25 mn by FY18 in pipeline to further increase portfolio
Bengaluru, September 29, 2016: Zeta, a leading tax optimiser that helps working professionals increase their take-home salaries by utilising tax-compliant benefits, today introduced three new digital solutions, namely Fuel & Travel, Communications and Books & Periodicals, as part of its the employee tax benefits product portfolio.
Bhavin Turakhia
Ramki Gaddipati
These unique e-solutions offer tax savings to employees as per legal provisions on fuel reimbursements or allowances, mobile phone and internet bill reimbursements and books & periodicals reimbursements. These three products are in addition to Zeta’s existing digital solutions like meal vouchers, medical reimbursements, gadget card and gift card.
Zeta CEO and co-founder Bhavin Turakhia said, “Since Zeta’s launch, all our efforts have been concentrated on offering a tech facelift to employee tax benefits. Fuel allowances, mobile bill and books & periodicals reimbursements are probably a few of the most process-plagued benefits and we are happy to make this space more convenient by making it 100% digital.”
“Corporates can easily roll out Zeta’s employee-friendly solutions through which a salaried person can increase their take-home salary by Rs 80,000 per annum,” said Zeta CTO and co-founder Ramki Gaddipati.
More than 300 corporates, ranging from start-ups to conglomerates, across industries have already implemented Zeta’s solutions. “We have seen good growth in the past few months. Given our pace, Zeta will see an investment to the tune of US$25 million in the current and next financial year that will be used for scaling up the business,” added Mr Turakhia.
Zeta’s cloud-based solution enables companies to send grants to employees instantly via a digital dashboard. In just a few clicks, managers can credit grants to all employees in one go, who in turn, can spend it using a MasterCard-powered physical Super Card, an NFC-enabled sticker — Super Tag or the Zeta app. Currently, Zeta serves 35,000 users across India.
Until now, these benefits have been plagued with the hassles of paperwork, manual calculations and tracking of bills, which Zeta aims to completely remove from the equation.
Zeta also has a wide acceptance network that makes it possible for users to utilise their grants at any store including e-commerce sites, unlike other existing closed-loop solutions.
About Zeta: www.zeta.in
Zeta, part of Directi Group, is a Fintech start-up in the space of mobile and digital payments. Zeta has started this journey by launching enterprise cloud solutions for HR managers that entail end-to-end management of employee tax benefits and rewards that are run digitally. Started in April 2015, Zeta has over 300 employees spread over 9 Indian cities: Mumbai, New Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Kolkata , Kochi and Ahmedabad.
Zeta has over 300 corporates in its clientele across industries ranging in size from large conglomerates to small start- ups. We are ISO certified and PCI-DSS compliant.
Bhavin Turakhia (CEO) and Ramki Gaddipati (CTO) are co-founders of Zeta. To know more on Zeta, log onto www.zeta.in or follow @ZetaIndia on Twitter and Facebook.
Digitising employee benefits with Zeta
Zeta Fuel and Travel Card:
A one-stop solution for managing fuel and car lease benefits, Zeta Fuel & Travel Card can include fuel grants for work-related travel, conveyance allowance, driver salary, auto insurance and car hire/lease.
Zeta Communications Card:
A digitised solution for communication reimbursements on pre-paid / post-paid mobile, landline and internet / data card bills.
Zeta Books & Periodicals Card:
A digitised system of claiming reimbursements for expenses on books and periodicals purchased for official purposes.
What sets Zeta’s solutions apart?
Zeta’s solutions are 100% customisable and can be altered to suit any company policy. We aim to remove paperwork from the filing and claiming of employee tax benefits and make it easy for both employees and employers to use them.
Zeta can help save corporates over 90% operation time, resources and costs on managing and tracking these benefits. This also reduces paperwork for employees significantly, allowing them to file and track their claims on-the-go, using their smartphones.
How much can employees save with our solutions?
Zeta Fuel and Travel Card: Rs 6,480 per year
Zeta Communication Card: Rs 25,200 per year
Zeta Books & Periodicals Card: Rs 12,600 per year
*Considering an employee is in the 30% tax bracket and an average industry standard, we have arrived at these figures.
What does the Income Tax policy say:
Fuel or Conveyance
Fuel: If maintenance and running expenses are met by employer or reimbursed to employee – (a) in case of small car (less than 1600 CC engine) Rs 1,800 per month (b) in case of big car (over 1600 CC engine) Rs 2,400 per month and (c) chauffeur salary Rs 900 per month.
Conveyance: Transport Allowance granted to an employee to meet expenditure on commuting between place of residence and place of duty. Up to Rs 1,600 per month is exempt.
Communication:
Telephone reimbursement provided to employees is not taxable as per 3(7)(ix) of the Income Tax Rules. Telephone connection includes both landline and mobile connections. While there is no explicit reference to data card connection in Rule 3(7)(ix), some experts opine that data card falls under the mobile phone category since a data card is just a SIM card. The bill employees present can be fully tax exempted, however, organisations, according to internal policies may set an upper limit to this.
Books and periodicals:
Some professions demand an employee to keep abreast with latest happenings relating to profession e.g. medical, finance, legal etc. Therefore, employees can purchase newspapers, books, periodicals etc. and submit actual bills for reimbursement. It is fully-exempted from income tax on actuals but organisations, according to internal policies may set an upper limit to this.
Welcome to the World of Zeta
Zeta’s mission is to make payments easy, inclusive and more valuable for corporations, professionals and merchants everywhere in India. Our products are built around the idea that spending and receiving money should be easy, fast and trouble-free for everyone. Zeta’s powerful cloud-based Corporate Benefits and Rewards programme saves all its users the most precious resources there are: time and effort.
Disrupting Corporate Benefits and Rewards
So why did we re-invent corporate benefits and rewards? The answer is simple: the old way made little sense. The corporate world has long been plagued by outdated and inefficient ways of doling out benefits to its employees. There’s a lot of paperwork and logistics involved that take up undue manpower and cost. For employees, the process of receiving and spending these benefits has been unpleasant at best.
Zeta is designed to help companies optimise their employee benefits and rewards under a single, inclusive and customisable programme. We can save them invaluable time and money by eliminating painful paperwork and logistics. The suite of products includes tax-exempted allowances for meals, medical expenses, communication, fuel and gadgets, and gift cards. Since Zeta’s programme is built to be comprehensive, it can be tailored to include all compliant tax perquisites that a company may need.
For the corporate professional, Zeta spells a sea change that will make a very real difference in their everyday life. Instead of having to chase after their benefits, the benefits will now come to them automatically. They won’t have to worry about saving bills all year long, and they can make payments in a jiffy, at the touch of button or with the swipe of a card. The Benefits portfolio also helps taxpaying employees save up to Rs. 80,000 every year without adding a single rupee to the company’s cost. Our payment modes that include the Zeta app, Super Card and Super Tag give users access to as wide a merchant network as any in the country, if not wider.
About Zeta
Founded in April 2015 by Bhavin Turakhia (CEO) and Ramki Gaddipati (CTO) , Zeta has over 300 employees spread over 9 major cities in India including Mumbai, New Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Kolkata , Kochi and Ahmedabad. Zeta has over 300 corporates in its clientele across industries - ranging from startups to large conglomerates. We are ISO certified and PCI-DSS compliant.
Zeta is a Directi portfolio company founded by Bhavin Turakhia. Established in 1998, Directi is a technology conglomerate with a group valuation of US $1.4 billion. It has offices in Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Dubai, New York, Los Angeles, Ras Al Khaimah and Zurich.
Bhavin Turakhia Co-Founder & CEO
Bhavin is a serial tech entrepreneur and the Co-Founder & CEO of Zeta and Directi Group.
Zeta is Directi’s latest venture which he co-founded with Ramki Gaddipati in 2015. Directi’s other business units include Ringo, Flock, Zeta, Radix and Codechef.
With over 18 years of experience in the field of technology, Bhavin brings in a deep understanding of the entire industry, a keen business sense, and most importantly, a clear vision of the future of the industry.
He is a respected personality in the Internet and Technology community, and a frequent speaker at various seminars, tech conferences and top management institutes.
Bhavin has also written several noteworthy papers on technology and e-commerce trends, and has spoken at various seminars across the globe on topics ranging from advertising on the Internet to solutions for the start-up ecosystem. He has won several awards in his career till date.
Ramki Gaddipati
CTO and co-founder
Ramki Gaddipati is Chief Technology Officer and the co-founder of Zeta, an emerging player in the space of mobile and digital payments.
Ramki leads a strong team of engineers to give the product a stable foundation at Zeta. He is extremely passionate about product engineering with a strong sense of initiative and commitment to excellence at every step.
Ramki has been involved with the Directi Group for seven years, having led several tech initiatives in various capacities.
In the past Ramki co-founded Bridle Information and Technology Solutions and was listed in Asia’s Best Entrepreneurs Under 25 by BusinessWeek in 2006.
He holds a Master’s degree in Management and in Software Systems from Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani.