From cash transaction limit to one-form ITR process, this is how your new FY18 will be

Financial year for the year 2017-2018 has begun from today. Last fiscal witnessed sea of changes in corporate sector. From cash transaction limit to mandatory Aadhaar Card, a lot has been announced by the government. 

Here's a list of changes which will be effective from today:

1. Cash transaction limit: In order to curb blackmoney in the country, the government announced that cash transactions will now be limited to up to Rs 2 lakh. The new rule is effective from today.

In February, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley while presenting the Budget for FY17-FY18, had said that the restriction will be for cash transaction up to Rs 3 lakh. But, later on March 22, the government tightened the limit to Rs 2 lakh. 

2. Aadhaar Card: To file the income tax returns in the new fiscal, the government has made Aadhaar Card mandatory. Till now, the disclosing Aadhaar number was optional. 

Moreover, the Aadhaar card will also be necessary while applying for permanent account number (PAN).

3. Tax bracket: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the Union Budget for FY17-18 has brought cheer to every tax payer. He announced ncome tax rate cut to 5% for individuals having income between Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 5 lakh.  Currently, for the income exceeding Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 5 lakh is liable for 10% tax.

For the rest of the tax slab remained unchanged. Which means, the tax rate for the individual earning between Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh will be liable for 20% tax rate. Also, for the income above Rs 10 lakh, 30% of tax rate will be levied. 

4. Income Tax Return filing: To simplify the filing of Income Tax Returns, Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) notified the designing of one page ITR. "ITR Form-1(Sahaj) can be filed by an individual having income upto Rs 50 lakh and who is receiving income from salary one house property / other income (interest etc.)," CBDT said.

This will reduce the compliance burden to a significant extent on the individual tax payer. This initiative will benefit more than two crore tax-payers who will be eligible to file their return of income in this simplified Form, Ministry of Finance said in a release. 

5. GAAR Tax: In January, CBDT had announced that legislation against tax avoidance GAAR will kick in from April 1. 

General Anti-Avoidance Rule (GAAR) was part of the 2012-13 Budget speech of the then Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to check tax evasion and avoidance.

However, its implementation was repeatedly postponed because of the apprehensions expressed by foreign investors.

GAAR, which was originally to be implemented from April 1, 2014, will now come into effect from April 1, 2017 (Assessment Year 2018-19).

6. Demonetised notes: From today, old notes or Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes will not be exchanged anywhere. On November 8, Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a surprise move had announced the ban on Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes.

However, till March 31, to exchange the old note facility was available for NRIs and till December 31, the exchange window was oopen for Indians. But, from today, the facility has been closed for everyone. 

7. State Bank of India merger with its 5 associates: India's largest bank in terms of assets, State Bank of India announced that it has merged its five associate banks besides Bharatiya Mahila Bank with itself with effect from today.

The five associate banks are State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur, State Bank of Hyderabad, State Bank of Mysore, State Bank of Patiala, State Bank of Travancore. 

With this merger, the total customer base of the Bank willreach 37 crores with a branch network of around 24000 and nearly 59000 ATMs across the country, the bank said in a release.

8. BS IV norms: The Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday banned the sale of Bharat Stage (BS) III vehicles from April 1 onwards. The apex court passed the judgment that vehicles not compliant with BS IV norms will not be sold from today.

This comes as a major blow to many automobile manufacturers who have a large unsold inventory of BS III vehicles.

Two-wheelers have the highest inventory of BS III vehicles of over 6 lakh vehicles, followed by 96,000 commercial vehicles and around 40,000 three-wheelers, according to SIAM figures submitted to SC.

9. Vikalp scheme: From today, Indian Railways will roll out a new Vikalp scheme, under which wait-listed passengers can get an option to travel in premium trains like Shatabdi and Rajdhani.

As of now, the scheme will be available in online bookings and later extended to counters. Under this scheme, waitlisted passengers can get confirmed berths in the next alternate train if they opt for it while booking their tickets. There would be no extra charges or any refund provided for the difference of fares.

10. End of Reliance Jio offer: The free offers which Reliance Jio was offering from past six months has now come to an end. However, on the last date of the  Jio Prime subscription membership, Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (Jio) announced the extension of the offer and said that it has garnered over 72 million paid subscriptions for Jio Prime.

For the first recharge of Rs 303 and the one-time payment of Rs 99 the company has extended the deadline till April 15.

Mukesh Ambani, Chairman, Reliance Industries, said, "Customers who could not enrol for JIO PRIME by 31st March for whatever reason can still do so by paying Rs 99 along with their first purchase of Jio’s Rs 303 and other plans till 15th April.”

11. Income tax penalty: In the new financial year, provision of penalty in case of late filing of the return will be effective. As per the provision, if the return is not filed till December 31, a penalty of Rs 5,000 will be charged from the taxpayer. And, if the taxpayer files the return after December 31, a penalty of Rs 10,000 will be charged. 

For taxpayer with income up to Rs 5 lakh, the penalty is restricted to Rs 1,000.