From vehicle prices to cheque books of merged banks, 5 Major things changing from April 1

From the new financial year starting April 1, several things which are important for your everyday life will be changed.

New Delhi: Come April and you will see several changes ranging from vehicle prices to personal finances as you will be entering a new fiscal year (2021-22) and hence new provisions will govern you. Apart from that the government had made several announcements and other changes which could affect you positively or negatively.

Here are the 5 major changes listed below:

Car and bike prices

Car and bike manufacturers across the country will roll out the revised price of their respective auto models from April 1. Maruti Suzuki, Nissan, Renault, Datsun, Toyota, Hero MotoCorp are among the major auto makers that have announced to hike price of vehicles to offset the impact of rising input costs.

Cheque books of merged banks

From April 1, the cheque books and passbooks of 7 banks will be invalid on account of their merger. Banks like Dena Bank, Vijaya Bank, Corporation Bank, Andhra Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, United Bank and Allahabad Bank which have gone for merger have asked their customers to get new cheque book and IFSC code. The older cheque books will cease to work from April 1.

ITR for Senior citizens

Announcing the Budget 2021, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the Budget seeks to reduce compliance burden on senior citizens who are of 75 years of age and above.  Such senior citizens having only pension and interest income will be exempted from filing their income tax return.  The paying Bank will deduct the necessary tax on their income. 

Term Insurance

From April 1, the premium on term insurance is expected to get higher owing to COVID-19 and higher comorbidities. Although the premium will vary from company to company, factors such as age, gender and income are some factors for determining premium.

Tax on annual provident fund

FM had also proposed to tax interest earned on annual provident fund contribution of over Rs 2.5 lakh effective from April 1, 2021. This restriction shall be applicable only for the contribution made on or after April 1, 2021. However, on March 24, FM announced to raise the limit for tax exemption on interest earned on provident fund contribution by employees to Rs 5 lakh per annum in specified cases (where there is no employer contribution to EPF).