Financial Deadlines For 2023: Make Sure You Don’t Miss The December Deadline For These 6 Tasks

As the year draws to a close, it’s important to be aware of these six important financial tasks before the December 31, 2023 deadline. Several deadlines, from mutual fund nominations to belated income tax return (ITR) filings are fast approaching.

Here’s a list of those six deadlines for December 2023.

Deadline for MF And Demat Nominations

The Securities and Exchanges Board of India (Sebi) has extended the mutual fund nomination deadline to December 31, 2023 to enable unitholders to opt for or opt out of nominations in their mutual fund (MF) units.

Unitholders can submit their choice using specified forms through fund houses, registrars, or transfer agents. Additionally, nominations can be modified in investment accounts held through online platforms or by contacting the respective fund houses.

Non-compliance could result in freezing of the folios, thus causing restrictions on mutual fund transactions, such as redemptions, systematic withdrawal plans (SWP), switches, or systematic transfer plans (STPs).

Sebi has also mandated that folios for physical securities would be frozen if the Permanent Account Number (PAN), nomination, contact details, bank account details, and specimen signature are not submitted by December 31, 2023.

Last Date To File Belated ITR

Individuals who missed the July 31, 2023 deadline for filing their income tax return (ITR) have a chance to submit belated ITRs before December 31, 2023, but with penalties.

The ITR filed after the expiry of deadline is called belated ITR. One will have to pay a late filing fee and penal interest on taxes due (if any) when filing a belated ITR. Here’s more details on penalty and how to file belated ITR.

Revised Timeline For IPOs

Sebi aims to make initial public offerings (IPOs) more efficient by reducing the time between the closing of an IPO and the listing of shares.

Sebi’s move to shorten the listing period from T+6 (transaction plus six days) days to T+3 days will start for all listings from December 1, 2023. On T+3 day, the advertisement regarding allotment

should be published in all the newspapers where the opening and closing advertisements of the IPO have previously appeared. Also, the trading will commence on the same day.

Bank Locker Agreement Deadline

The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) revised rules demand the execution of updated locker agreements by December 31, 2023. So, you might need to sign and submit an updated locker agreement if you have not done it so far.

Under the new rules, customers can keep only legitimate items in the locker. It formally rules out storing any illegal items or hazardous substances, among others. On any suspicion, the new rules give the bank the right to take ‘appropriate action’ against the customer.

The new rules mandate that the bank’s liability in content loss cases will be ‘equivalent to 100 times the prevailing annual rent of the safe deposit locker’. Also, if the locker rent is not paid for three years, the bank can break open the locker ‘following due procedure’ after informing the customer and allowing the customer to take the locker articles.

Inactivation Of UPI IDs

The National Payments Corporation of India’s (NPCI’s) directive to deactivate dormant Unified Payment Interface (UPI) IDs not used for over a year, should be completed before December 31, 2023.

NPCI has asked payment apps, such as Google Pay, Paytm, PhonePe and banks to deactivate the UPI IDs and numbers that have not been active for more than one year.

This is being done in order to secure the UPI ecosystem and prevent wrong transfer of funds. So, users must activate their UPI ID before this date to avoid cancellation of their dormant UPI IDs.

Meanwhile, before deactivating the user’s UPI ID, the bank will give a notification to the users through email or message.

Special FDs

IDBI Bank has extended the validity date for special fixed deposits (FDs), dubbed as Utsav FD, for 375 days and 444 days tenure until December 31, 2023, according to the bank’s website. Term deposits of special tenure of 37 days has a rate of interest of 7.10 per cent.

Senior citizens receive a 50 basis points (bps) premium over this rate. State Bank of India (SBI) has also extended the deadline for its Amrit Kalash special FD till December 31, 2023 with the same deposit rate of 7.10 per cent and 50 bps extra for senior citizens.

Indian Bank, a public sector bank, has extended the special FD offering higher rate of interest dubbed “Ind Super 400” till December 31, 2023. The rate of interest is 7.10 per cent and seniors receive 75 bps extra.