April 1 was set to mark an array of significant changes that were to directly impact the lives of millions of Indians. The government had earlier issued an order to make changes to the wage code that would have impacted crores of salaried employees. Apart from that, announcements were made for changing the interest rates on small savings and mandatory PAN-Aadhaar link.
Below is the list of changes that were expected to come into effect on April 1 but have been deferred for some time:
The changes in salary will not come into force today. A senior Labour Ministry official told a business daily that Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government has put the new wage code, that may change the take home salary, on hold for now.
As per these rules, wages should be at least 50 per cent of the employee's total remuneration. That includes basic salary, dearness allowance and retaining allowance. If these exceed 50 per cent of the total income, the amount above 50 per cent will be treated as part of the wages, according to Economic Times.
Earlier, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said that the Central government will be implementing the New-Wage Code Bill 2021 from April 1, 2021.
The Central Government has extended the last date for linking of Aadhaar number with PAN from 31st March, 2021 to 30th June, 2021, in view of the difficulties arising out of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Date for issue of notice under section 148 of Income-tax Act,1961, passing of consequential order for direction issued by the Dispute Resolution Panel (DRP) & processing of equalisation levy statements also extended to 30th April, 2021, the Income Tax department tweeted.
¡°Keeping in view the difficulties faced by the taxpayers, the Central Government has issued notification today extending the last date for the intimation of Aadhaar number and linking thereof with PAN to 30th June, 2021,¡± the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said in a statement.
Centre has withdrawn its decision to lower the small savings rate for the April-June quarter.
"Interest rates of small savings schemes of GoI shall continue to be at the rates which existed in the last quarter of 2020-2021, i.e., rates that prevailed as of March 2021. Orders issued by oversight shall be withdrawn," Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman tweeted.
The rollback was announced amid second round of voting for assembly polls in West Bengal and Assam.
In a decision, which would have delivered a blow to savers who depend on small savings schemes for income and social security, the Ministry of Finance on Wednesday announced the reduction in the small savings rate to 3.5 per cent for the first quarter of the financial year starting April 1, 2021.