A race against time to meet these 7 deadlines which expire on March 31

Did you know that the last date to file an updated income tax return (ITR) for the assessment year 2021-22 is March 31, 2024? Likewise, you will not be entitled to claim tax exemption if you happen to invest in a financial instrument such as PPF, NPS or tax saving FD after the month culminates.

Additionally, State Bank of India (SBI) will stop offering a higher interest rate on its special fixed deposit scheme — Amrit Kalash, nor will it offer discounted interest rates on home loans after this date.

Besides, the state lender has revised the debit card charges which will come into force from April 1, 2024. All in all, a range of personal finance changes will come into effect from April 1, 2024 onwards. Here we give these lowdown on these changes:

These are the seven key deadlines that you should be aware of:

1 SBI special fixed deposit scheme: The State Bank of India introduced a limited-tenure deposit scheme known as Amrit Kalash and We-care.

We-care deposit scheme is meant for senior citizens. The minimum tenure of the FD is 5 years and the maximum tenure is 10 years. The interest rate offered on this FD is 7.5 percent per annum.

Amrit Kalash deposit scheme is an FD for 400 days and the interest rate offered on this FD is 7.10 percent per annum. The senior citizens will be entitled to get an extra 50 basis on this rate i.e., 7.6 percent.

2 Home loan special rates: SBI is offering the campaign interest rates between Jan 1 and March 31 that offers a concession of anywhere between 65 basis points to 75 basis points.

For instance, those borrowers with CIBIL score of more than 750 are being offered loans at 8.50 percent instead of 9.15 percent i.e. a concession of 65 basis points.

Likewise, the borrowers with a CIBIL score between 700-749 are offered loans at 8.60 percent instead of 9.35 percent, i.e., concession of 75 basis points.

Check the table for further details:

3 SBI Debit card rates: The largest lender has also announced to revise its annual maintenance charges. The yearly charges, the bank announced, have been raised by ₹75 across categories of SBI debit cards such Yuva, Gold, Combo, and Platinum Debit Cards.

Check the table for latest charges

(GST to be added to these charges)

4 Income Tax (I-T) exemption: Those taxpayers who want to invest in the tax saving financial instruments in order to claim their income tax (I-T) exemptions for the fiscal 2023-24 are supposed to invest prior to March 31, 2024.

These instruments enable taxpayers to invest in the financial instruments which enable tax exemption under section 80C of Income Tax (I-T) Act, 1962. These include PPF, NPS, insurance premium, ELSS, tax-saving fixed deposits, ULIP, Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana and Senior Citizen Savings Scheme, among others.

Meanwhile, it is vital to note that the investment in equity instruments cannot be done on a day when financial markets are closed. Since, the month is ending during the weekend which is preceded by Good Friday; the last date to claim tax exemption via ELSS is March 31.

Read this for more details.

5 Revised surrender value for insurance policies: Insurance regulator Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDAI) has released a set of new regulations in relation to the surrender value of insurance policies. The new set of rules will come into effect from the next financial year i.e. April 1, 2024.

Revised surrender values to come into force from April 1, 2024

6 IDBI Bank’s special FD: IDBI Bank offers Utsav Callable FD where interest in the range of 7.05 to 7.25 percent is offered to general depositors and 7.55 percent to 7.75 percent to senior citizens.

Check the rates in the table below:

(Source: idbibank.in)

These special FDs are being offered only till March 31 this year.

7. Income Tax Updated Return (ITR-U): Another deadline that is expiring on March 31 is that of filing an updated income tax return. So, in case you missed filing the original income tax return, you can still file an updated return before March 31, 2024 for any of these assessment years: 2021-22, 2022-23 and 2023-24.

However, it is vital to note that this carries additional tax and interest which needs to be paid along with the updated return.

The additional tax component is 50 percent of aggregate of tax and interest for assessment year 2021-22 and for the two subsequent years, the additional tax component is 25 percent of aggregate tax and interest.

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Published: 28 Mar 2024, 11:15 AM IST