New Rules From January 01 2021, Find Out More

Come January 1, 2021, there are going to be new changes linked to our day-to-day life including your cash/bank transactions or the phones that you use. The Indian Government has been coming out with various rules, which will come into effect from next year.Check these out:

Positive pay system for cheques

To keep a check on banking frauds, the Reserve Bank of India decided to introduce the ''positive pay system'' for cheque payments. In this system, there will be a requirement of re-confirmation of the key details for the payments above Rs 50,000. This rule of a positive pay system will come into effect from January 1, 2021. Banks may think about making it necessary for cheques with amounts of Rs 5 lakh and higher.

Contactless card transactions limit

From January 1, the RBI has said to increase the limits from Rs 2,000 to Rs 5,000 for contactless card transactions and e-mandates for regularly occurring transactions through cards and UPI. The move by RBI is to enhance digital payments. This will ensure a safe and secure manner, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic.

UPI Payment

From January 1, 2021, users may need to pay additional charges while making transactions from Amazon Pay, Google Pay, and Phone Pay. National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) will impose an additional charge on UPI Payment Service (UPI Payment) run by a third-party app beginning from January 1. NPCI has applied a 30 percent cap on third-party apps starting the New Year.

Google Pay Web app to go

Google Pay is all set to remove the user-to-user payments facility on its web app and add a fee for instant money transfers in January. Until now, the customers were able to manage payments and send money over the mobile app or from pay.google.com. According to the recent notification of Google, the web app site will no longer work from January 2021.

WhatsApp to stop working on select phones

Popular messaging service WhatsApp is going to withdraw support from some platforms from January. WhatsApp page has mentioned the operating systems that it provides support for and recommends using these devices: Android running OS 4.0.3 and newer; iPhone running iOS 9 and newer; and select phones running KaiOS 2.5.1 newer, including JioPhone and JioPhone 2.

Landline to Mobile phone calls

You will be required to prefix '0' for making calls from landlines to mobile phones in the country. The telecom department has asked telcoms to work on the required infrastructure by January 1 in order to implement the new system effectively. This move will create enough numbering space for telecom services.

FASTag for four-wheelers

The Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has made FASTag mandatory for all four-wheel vehicles from January 1, 2021, through a notification. FASTag will be mandatory for M and N class four-wheelers sold before December 1, 2017. The Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989 were also amended for the same. 

GST Returns For Small Businesses

Businesses with up to Rs 5 crore turnover will have to file only four GST sales returns, or GSTR-3B, from January instead of 12 at present. From January onwards, small taxpayers would need to file only eight returns (four GSTR-3B and four GSTR-1 returns) in a year.