The income tax return filing website will not be available for taxpayers for at least six days, starting from Tuesday. Employee Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) earlier asked the subscribers to link their provident fund accounts to the Aadhaar card from June 1. From new income tax filing online portal to costlier flight tickets, here’s a list of changes that will come into effect this month

New income tax filing portal

In a bid to make income tax return filing more user-friendly and easier, the tax department is all set to launch a new website on June 7. To migrate all the activities from the previous site to the new one, the income tax e-filing portal www.incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in will remain shut for the taxpayers from June 1 to June 6. “We are excited to be moving to the new e-Filing portal from 7th June, 2021 onwards. The new portal, designed to be more user friendly, will have several new features and enhancements. Stay Tuned!” the Income Tax department said earlier.

PF rule change

The retirement body had earlier asked the users to link their provident fund accounts to the Aadhaar cards by June. If members do not verify their PF accounts with Aadhaar cards June 1, their EPF contributions may be stopped crediting into the accounts. It must be noted that Universal Account Number (UAN) also needs to be linked to your Aadhaar accounts.

Bank of Baroda new cheque payment rules

Starting from June 1, the public lender Bank of Baroda will implement new cheque payment rules for its customers. For cheque payments of over Rs 2 lakh, Bank of Baroda customers will need to provide ‘positive pay confirmation’ to the bank. The new rule is aimed at preventing fraud incidents in payments made via cheques. Customers can also send the details of a high-value cheque online in advance to make hassle-free transactions. The details include cheque number, payee name, transaction amount, account number, cheque date, and transaction code, Bank of Baroda said.

Costlier flight tickets

The ministry of civil aviation (MoCA) earlier increased the lower limit on domestic airfares from 13 per cent to 16 per cent. So, domestic flights are all set to become costlier, beginning from June 1. “Fare for domestic travel less than 40 minutes of duration will be hiked by ₹ 2,300 to ₹ 2,600, which is 13 per cent of the current fare," the ministry said. Similarly, for flights of duration between 60-90 minutes airfare will be charged at ₹ 4,000, 90-120 minutes at ₹ 4,700, 150-180 minutes at ₹ 6,100 and 180-210 minutes will cost ₹ 7,400.

Gold jewellery hallmarking not mandatory from June 1

The Centre earlier extended the deadline for mandatory hallmarking of gold jewellery and artefacts till June 15 in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. Gold hallmarking is a purity certification of the precious metal and is voluntary in nature at present. A committee, headed by Pramod Tewari, director general, Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has been formed to ensure proper coordination and resolve the implementation issues.