Financial matters that need your attention in September

Be it paying taxes, using debit/credit cards for transactions or investing in the National Pension Scheme (NPS), here are the four critical financial matters that need your attention in September, 

1. The time limit for verifying ITR has been reduced from 120 to 30 days for late filers.

ITR verification is a declaration which states that the information provided by you when filing your taxes is correct. If the ITR is filed on or before the 31st of July, the deadline for verification will remain at 120 days. However, if you’ve filed the ITR after the 31st of July, it will reduce to 30 days. Say you filed your ITR on the 1st of August. The deadline for you to verify your ITR will be the 1st of September. 

Without verification, the Income Tax department will not process your returns. Additionally, the more you delay verification, the longer it will take for the IT department to refund any money you might be owed. You will be charged an additional fee if you verify the tax return after 30 days. 

2. The introduction of ‘Tokenisation’ to secure your online card transactions 

As per an RBI announcement, the tokenisation rule will be effective from the 1st of October. Under the law, no merchant website can save your CVV, card details such as the card number, and expiry date for completing an online transaction. Instead, you must now save a token on the specific website if the online merchant provides that facility. The rule will help stop hackers from stealing the saved card data.  

3. An increase in the commission paid for an investment in the NPS. 

When you make periodic payments to the National Pension Scheme (NPS), a fee known as the ‘trail commission’ gets deducted from the contribution amount via the direct-remit mode. Under the direct-remit mode, same-day Net Asset Value (NAV) is offered if the investment is carried out and received before 09:30 am. The trail commission has been hiked from 0.10% to 0.20%. The commission is given to entities such as banks, Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFC), and others that help you invest in the NPS. 

4. An increase in debit card issuance and annual fees 

With a steep rise in the cost of semiconductors that are used to make chips in debit cards, many banks across the country have spiked card issuance and annual fees. For example, the Indian Overseas Bank has increased the charges for various debit cards issued. The issuance fee for the Rupay card and the annual fee was Rs 50 and Rs 150, respectively. They have now been increased to Rs 150 and Rs 250 correspondingly.

For any clarifications/feedback on the topic, please contact the writer at sourabh.dubey@clear.in