Home loan or Car loan calculator

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Tax benefits: Tax benefit is only on the interest paid on the loan taken.

Prohibition of Usury in Various Religions

Hinduism

The earliest such record derives from the Vedic texts of Ancient India (2,000-1,400 BC) in which the "usurer" (kusidin) is mentioned several times and interpreted as any lender at interest.  More frequent and detailed references to interest payment are to be found in the later Sutra texts (700-100 BC), as well as the Buddhist Jatakas (600-400 BC).  It is during this latter period that the first sentiments of contempt for usury are expressed.  For example, Vasishtha, a well known Hindu law-maker of that time, made a special law which forbade the higher castes of Brahmanas (priests) and Kshatriyas (warriors) from being usurers or lenders at interest.  Also, in the Jatakas, usury is referred to in a demeaning manner: "hypocritical ascetics are accused of practising it".

Christianity

Usury has always been viewed negatively by the Roman Catholic Church. The Second Lateran Council condemned any repayment of a debt with more money than was originally loaned, the Council of Vienna explicitly prohibited usury and declared any legislation tolerant of usury to be heretical, and the first scholastics reproved the charging of interest. In the medieval economy, loans were entirely a consequence of necessity (bad harvests, fire in a workplace) and, under those conditions, it was considered morally reproachable to charge interest.Therefore, to charge interest was considered to commerce with God's property. Also, St. Thomas Aquinas, the leading theologian of the Catholic Church, argued that the charging of interest is wrong because it amounts to "double charging", charging for both the thing and the use of the thing.

Judaism

Criticism of usury in Judaism has its roots in several Biblical passages in which the taking of interest is either forbidden, discouraged or scorned.  The Hebrew word for interest is neshekh, literally meaning "a bite" and is believed to refer to the exaction of interest from the point of view of the debtor.  In the associated Exodus and Leviticus texts, the word almost certainly applies only to lending to the poor and destitute, while in Deuteronomy, the prohibition is extended to include all moneylending, excluding only business dealings with foreigners.  In the levitical text, the words tarbit or marbit are also used to refer to the recovery of interest by the creditor.

Prohibition of Interest in Islam

Islam is the only religion that categorically forbids any transaction based on interest. The criticism of usury in Islam was well established during the Prophet Mohammed's life and reinforced by various of his teachings in the Holy Quran dating back to around 600 AD.  The original word used for usury in this text was ribawhich literally means "excess or addition".  The Islamic ban on interest does not mean that capital is costless in an Islamic system. Islam recognizes capital as a factor of production but it does not allow the factor to make a prior or pre-determined claim on the productive surplus in the form of interest.

Reference:

http://www.indianmba.com/Faculty_Column/FC987/fc987.html

http://www.henciclopedia.org.uy/autores/Laguiadelmundo/Usury.htm

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