Rules that change from 1st Oct 2020

From 1st October 2020 onwards, many rules are changing which will impact your personal finances and life in general. Some of the key changes are:

• Motor vehicle rules,
• Ujjwala scheme,
• Health insurance,
• RBI credit and debit card rules.

Here’s what is going to change from October 1:

1. No physical verification of Driving licence and RC:

• From today onwards, you do not have to worry about keeping a hard copy of documents like RC and driving licence with your while driving and now, you can drive a vehicle with only a valid soft copy of the documents attached to the vehicle.
• Recently, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways had issued notification of various amendments made in the Motor Vehicles Rules 1989, which will come into effect from October 1.
• One of the amendments included digitisation of documents including maintenance of vehicles, driving licences and e-challans. Now, drivers can maintain their vehicular documents on Central govt’s online portal like Digi-locker or m-parivahan.

2. No more free LPG connection:

• Under the flagship scheme of the government Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana or PMUY, people who are looking for a free LPG connection can apply for one.
• However, the process of getting a gas connection for free ended on 30 September 2020.
• Earlier the scheme was valid till April. However, in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, the government had extended this scheme till September 30.
• The Union cabinet-approved extension for availing free cooking gas cylinders under PMUY has ended.

3. TCS

• From today onwards, any amount sent abroad to buy foreign tour packages, and every other foreign remittance made above Rs 7 lakh, will attract a tax-collected-at source (TCS) unless the tax is already deducted at source (TDS) on that amount.
• TCS at the rate of five per cent will be imposed on the money remitted outside India.
• However, if the remittance is made out of a loan taken for higher education, the TCS rate will be 0.5 per cent of the money remitted.
• The Finance Act, 2020 has inserted a new sub-section (1G) in Section 206C in this regard.

4. New credit and debit card rules:

• From October 1 onwards, the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) new guidelines to secure debit and credit cards will come into affect.
• According to these new guidelines, card users will now be able to register opt-in or opt-out of services, spend limits, etc. for international transactions, online transactions and contactless card transactions.
• From today, if customers want to use their debit, credit cards outside India, they would need to request their banks for the facility.
• Users will have 24×7 access to switch ON/OFF or change all transaction limits via all available channels — mobile application/internet banking/ATMs/Interactive Voice Response (IVR).

5. New health insurance rules:

• In a bid to remove ambiguities, IRDAI has asked insurers to standardize the exclusions — diseases or medical conditions that are not covered under a policy. These change will come into effect from October 1.
• The changes in the health insurance cover have been introduced in the aftermath of Covid-19 and the prices for premium health services will eventually rise.
• The new health insurance rules to be introduced post-Covid-19 inclusion will make 17 permanent illnesses outside the cover. Any disease or ailment that is diagnosed by a physician 48 months prior to the issuance of the health cover will be classified as pre-existing diseases.
• Besides, any condition whose symptoms have resulted within three months of the policy issuance will also be classified under pre-existing diseases. Treatment for mental illness, stress will now be covered under health insurance policies.

6. Buying television may become expensive:

• Starting October 1, a customs duty at the rate of 5 per cent shall apply on Open Cell, a key component for television manufacturing.
• The customs duty exemption given to Open Cell for a period of one year ended on September 30.
• As part of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’, the government is keen to expand domestic production capacity for open cell panels so that imports can be curbed.
• The one-year exemption given to the item expired and from today onwards, buying a TV set may become expensive.
• As per government officials, the price increase due to this duty will not be more than Rs 250 per Television set.

7. New Tax Collected at Source (TCS) regime:

• The Income Tax Department on Tuesday issued guidelines for applicability of TCS provision which requires an e-commerce operator to deduct 1 per cent tax on the sale of goods and services with effect from October 1.
• The Finance Act, 2020 inserted a new section 194-O in the Income-tax Act 1961 which mandates that with effect from October 1, an e-commerce operator shall deduct income tax at the rate of 1 per cent of the gross amount of sale of goods or provision of service or both, facilitated through its platform.

8. ‘Best before date’ mandatory for sweet shops:

• From 1^st Oct 2020, while buying sweets, you must now check the ‘Best before date’ as it has been made compulsory for the sweet makers to mention it on the product. This means the shopkeeper has to inform the customer that till what date the dessert will remain edible.
• However, it is not mandatory for them to write the date of manufacture of the product, as the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has left it to the will of the manufacturers.