New rules on health insurance, DL, vehicle RC, foreign funds transfer, etc.

Effective from October 1, 2020, a number of changes taken place in respect of rules relating to health insurance coverage, driving licence , and registration certificate of vehicles, debit card, and credit card rules, Foreign fund transfer, FSSAI orders on foods, Ujwala connections, and Tax collection policy, etc. Here’s a brief look at the new rules.

1. Implementation of new health insurance rules

The health insurance companies will be observing new health insurance rules from October 1, 2020. Changes in health insurance cover have been introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic and may cause a rise in price for premium health services. While COVID-19 has now been included in the plans, standardised list of 17 diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, epilepsy, congenital heart disease, cerebral stroke, chronic liver, Hepatitis B, HIV and AIDS, kidney diseases, loss of hearing, and other physical disabilities will not be covered under the new rules. Besides COVID 19, the new health insurance plan will be catering to rising issues like mental illnesses, genetic diseases, psychological illnesses, etc. Neuro disorder, oral chemotherapy, robotic surgery, stem cell therapy, etc may be included. No ratio reduction will be born by the patient for ICU charges. This would come under the ambit of the hospital room rent package. Patients will get full claims for things like Pharmacy, implant, and diagnostic among other medical expenses. Telemedicine will be a part of the health cover. The claim will have a time period of eight years after paying the premium. In short, there will be no-evaluation until eight years once the policy has been taken. It is contemplated that health insurance product will see a rise from five to 20 percent in the premium category

• Amendment to the Motor Vehicles Rules 1989

No physical copies of driving licence and registration certificate required to be attached to your vehicles. Instead, you need to hold soft copies of your driving licence and registration certificate. The Government of India has set up an information technology portal to digitize maintenance certificates and e-challans. Vehicle documents can be maintained on online portals like Digi-Locker or mParivahan. Under the new rules, Drivers can use their mobiles for route navigation in such a manner that it shall not disturb the concentration of the driver while driving, in a modern-day amendment made in the Motor Vehicles Rules.

• Credit and debit card safety rules

RBI has issued new guidelines to all the banks and other card-issuing companies to disable online payment services of all debit and credit cards which have never been used for digital payment in India or abroad. The new rule will be effective from October 1, 2020. According to new guidelines, now you will be able to register to opt-in or out of services, spend limits, etc. for international transactions, online transactions as well as contactless card transactions from your debit card and credit cards. Under this new rule, card-holders will also be able to choose their daily spending limits, withdrawal limits from ATM. The move of the Central Bank is aimed at reducing card-cloning frauds.

• Sweet sellers need to display ‘best before date’ from 1 October

 The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) in its order dated September 25, has made it mandatory from October 1 to write ‘Best before date’ on sweets plates in shops for the open sale of sweets, but there will be no restriction on the date for making sweets. However,  FSSAI has stated in the order that it would be optional to write the date of making.

• Blending of mustard oil with other cooking oils banned from October 1, 2020

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) wrote a letter to the commissioner of food safety of all states and Union Territories, directing that “blending of mustard oil with any other cooking oil in India has been prohibited with effect from October 1, 2020”.

• Foreign fund transfer – 5% tax will be levied:

Any amount sent abroad to buy foreign tour packages will now have TCS levied at a tax rate of 5 percent. Further, TCS levied on every other foreign remittance made above Rs 7 lakh at the same tax rate of 5 percent.

• New Tax Collected/deducted at Source (TCS/TDS) Regime

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on September 29 issued a detailed clarification pertaining to the new TDS/TCS provisions set to be applicable from October 1, 2020. The Finance Act 2020 widens the scope of TCS provisions to cover the sale of goods, sale of overseas tour packages, and overseas remittance of funds under the RBI’s Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS).

The new norm mandates e-commerce operators to have a Tax Deducted at Source (TDS), levied at 1 percent, of the amount of any sale of goods and services.

• No free LPG connection under Ujwala Yojana

The process of offering free gas connections under Ujwala Yojana (PMUY) ended on September 30. The Union Cabinet had approved an extension till end-September for availing free cooking gas cylinders under PMUY.