At the stroke of the midnight hour on June 30-July 1, 2017, Prime Minister, Mr Narendra Modi along with the President, Mr Pranab and in the presence of other esteemed dignitaries launched the historic Goods & Services Tax in bedecked Central Hall of the Parliament by pressing a ceremonial buzzer.

Welcome to the GST regime — an era where several indirect taxes levied by the Centre and state will be subsumed into one. Several indirect taxes such as Central Excise duty, Duties of Excise, Additional Duties of Excise, Countervailing Duty (CVD), Special Additional Duty of Customs, Service Tax, Central Surcharges and Cess (related to good and services), along with VAT, sales tax, luxury tax, entry tax, entertainment & amusement tax, tax on lotteries, betting & gambling, State Surcharges and Cess (related to good and services) are scrapped.

The GST Council has approved a five-tier tax structure: Nil, 5%, 12%, 18% and 28%.  However, it is not only the tax regime that has changed for now but a number of other crucial steps have been initiated.

PersonalFN has highlighted some of the events/tasks that will move into effect along with our revised tax structure. We will keep you posted on various other facets of GST in the coming week.

Aadhaar is mandatory for filing I-T returns

The Government has issued a circular stating that from July 1, 2017 onwards, every person eligible to obtain Aadhaar must quote their UID number or their Aadhaar Enrolment ID number to file Income Tax Returns as well as for PAN applications. This in turn will discourage the use of multiple PAN cards for tax filling and will help in sealing tax leakages.

Here are three simple steps to link your Aadhaar with PAN:

Step 1: Visit the Income Tax website

Step 2: Enter your PAN and Aadhaar details, and

Step 3: Complete the authentication process.

Aadhaar is mandatory for issuing PAN card

Aadhaar ID is now a mandatory document for fresh PAN card applications. Hence, keep your Aadhaar card in hand before you apply for a PAN card.

Aadhaar a must to get your Passport quicker

If you wish to have your passport application processed faster, Aadhaar is necessary. Ideally, you require multiple documents to furnish as Proof of Identity (POI) and Proof of Address (POA), but Aadhaar incorporates both under a single document. With all your biometric/personal data already stored in a central database, the processing time reduces.

Aadhaar mandatory for school and college scholarships

To avail for benefits under Central Sector Scholarship Scheme for College and University students, applicants will now have to furnish their Aadhaar details. For students already receiving scholarships, but do not have Aadhaar, are supposed to apply for the same and provide the Aadhaar Enrolment ID slip for the time being.

Aadhaar mandatory to avail benefits of the Public Distribution System (PDS)

After cooking gas, the Government has made it compulsory to have Aadhaar in order to avail the benefits of subsidy under the Food Security Law. Currently, the government provides 5kg food-grain per person every month at Rs 1-3/kg to over 80 crore people. 

Link Aadhaar with Employee Provident Fund (EPF ) Account

The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) in January 2017 made it mandatory for its pensioners and subscribers to submit their Aadhaar numbers. The deadline was revised time and again in view of the slow progress over the UID number submission by members. The new deadline is set as June 30, 2017. The important benefit of linking Aadhaar with the provident fund Unique Account Number (UAN) is that it increases transparency and makes the verification process easier.

Before linking your Aadhaar card, you need to activate your UAN. Once done, you can update your UID number online through the process outlined below:

1. Visit – EPFO website

2.  Login with your UAN and password

3.  Under the ‘Manage’ tab, select ‘KYC’

4.  Under this, you have the option to update details of several identification proofs, including Aadhaar

5.  Enter your Aadhaar number and name as per Aadhaar and click “Save’

Your Aadhaar should get linked within a couple of weeks if all personal details match.

Change in some Indian Railway rules

To avail of any concessions on railway tickets, such as a student concession or senior citizen concession, your Aadhaar card is mandatory. Ticket booking is now also possible in 15 regional languages.

From July 1st, 2017, you will get a 50% refund on the cancellation of your tatkal tickets. Presently, you don't get refund money on tatkal cancellation. Also, the tatkal booking time-slots will be revised as follows:

- AC coach tatkal ticket booking timing will be from 10 am to 12pm and

- Non-AC tatkal ticket booking will be from 11 am to 12pm

Along with the above, a lot of other facilities will be provided to facilitate the improved travel experience of travellers.

New curriculum for Chartered Accountants

Chartered Accountancy syllabus is about to change from July 1st, 2017. The new syllabus incorporates the Goods and Service Tax to prepare future CAs for the new nationwide indirect tax regime. The syllabus reconstruction is about to happen through many stages to make it easier for students to understand. Also, the revision has been augmented keeping in mind the International Education Standards of the International Federation of Accountants.

To Sum-up

It almost feels like a revolution with so many things changing concurrently at this point in time. Only time will tell if what is to be achieved is for the benefit of the common man and if “Achhe Din” has really arrived. With the expectantly simple yet perplexing GST tax structure, we can only hope for a better tomorrow.

You can also access Personalfn EPF calculator here.

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