September Comes with Changes, Impacting Lives of the Citizens

NEW DELHI: With starting from September, various new rules in relation to government’s policy, banking and finance will be effective in the country. Implementation of new rules will facilitate the day-to-day functioning of various sectors, including EPFO, Banking etc. 

While these updates will have a major impact on the lives of the common citizens, their livelihood, household etc. The foremost is to have the Aadhar linking with the EPFO portal, enabling the employees of the corporate with online services to be availed. 

Aadhar Link with EPFO

Effective September 01, 2021, the Employee Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has amended their section 142 of the Code of Social Security, 2020 which has further made Aadhaar-PF linking mandatory for availing services like receiving payments and seeking benefits and others. 

If an employee (Universal Account Number) UAN and Aadhaar is not linked, then the employers shall not credit money in your PF (provident fund) account. According to the updated rule, PF subscribers must link their Aadhaar card with their PF account till September 1, 2021, failing which they will not be able to avail EPF benefits.

Moreover, if a PF account is not linked to Aadhaar and UAN is not Aadhaar verified, then the ECR-Electronic Challan cum Return will not be filed for the said PF account. This means they will not be able to get the employer’s share of the contribution to their provident fund.

LPG Price Changes

From September, the prices of LPG cylinders will rise. In latest developments, it is reported that the petroleum companies have hiked LPG cylinder prices once again by Rs25; taking the price of a non-subsidised 14.2-kg cylinder in Delhi to Rs 884.50. LPG cylinders have witnessed surge in it’s prices from past 2 months. The new rates are effective from today. The price of a 19-kg commercial cylinder has also increased by ?75, which will now cost Rs 1,693 in Delhi.

New GST Rules in effect

The Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) recently announced in its advisory that Rule-59(6) of Central GST Rules which provides for restriction on the filing of GSTR-1 will come into effect from September 1, 2021.

According to the new rule, “a registered person will not be allowed to furnish the details of outward supplies of goods or services or both in Form GSTR-1 if he or she has not furnished the return in Form GSTR-3B for the preceding two months.”

Mandatory linking of PAN-Aadhaar

The State Bank of India (SBI) had earlier directed that linking the PAN card and the Aadhaar card was mandatory and had to be done within September 30.

According to bank officials familiar with the development, there might be transaction-related issues in case an individual does not follow through with the directions.

According to the erstwhile guidelines, the bank account had to be linked with PAN in the case of depositing over ₹50,000 to the account.

RBI’s Positive Pay System though had come into effect from January 1 and several banks have already adopted the new system, Axis Bank will implement the same from September 1 onwards.

Insurance Sectors And BH-Series

Following the Madras High Court, it will be mandatory for 5 years to have bumper to bumper insurance on purchase of new car. This might push the prices of cars higher. The transport ministry has introduced a new registration mark for new vehicles i.e., “Bharat series (BH-series)”.

A vehicle bearing this registration mark shall not require assignment of a new registration mark when the owner of the vehicle shifts from one State to another.