Major Financial Changes To Be Implemented From 1st May 2025

What Are The Financial Changes From 1st Of May?

The Indian government has made some changes and updates in various financial components of India, which will be implemented by the 1st of May. All those are laid down below for one’s better understanding and reference.

1. ATM Withdrawals

The Reserve Bank of India will be increasing the ATM interchange fees, which are usually charged by a bank when people who don’t have a bank account with them withdraw money from their ATM.

From the 1st of May, people will be given 3 free ATM transactions per month in metropolitan cities and 5 free ATM transactions per month in non-metropolitan cities. Also, those individuals who exceed their monthly cash limit will have to pay an extra charge of Rs. 23, which has been increased from Rs. 21.

2. Booking Of Railway Tickets

The Indian Railways has rolled out a new rule concerning waitlisted tickets. Individuals with waitlisted tickets are no longer authorised to travel in AC or sleeper coaches, they can only travel in General coaches with their waitlisted tickets.

The railway authorities of India have also reduced the reservation period from 120 days to 60 days and the cancellation refund window by 2 days.

3. Price Of LPG Cylinders

Under the PM Ujjwala Yojana, the price of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) cylinders has been increased by 50 Rupees, which makes the total amount Rs. 550. On the other hand, for people who don’t come under the PM Ujjwala Yojana will now be required to pay Rs. 853 per cylinder.

Officials have communicated that this decision is not set in stone and might be revised.

4. Fixed Deposit Rates

Some of the major banks, such as Shriram Finance Ltd, have revised their Fixed Deposit (FD) Rates. People who have accounts in RBL Bank will now enjoy a monthly rate of interest of 7%. Along with these, senior citizens will receive an additional interest rate of 0.50% p.a., and women will enjoy an additional interest rate of 0.10% p.a.

5. Income Tax Returns

The Income Tax Department has announced ITR forms 1 & 4 for the Assessment Year (AY) 2025-26. People who gained Long-Term Capital Gains (LTCG) of up to Rs. 1.25 lakh in a year can file ITR-1 (Sahaj) form rather than the more complex form ITR-2. Now, taxpayers and entities with an annual income of less than 50 lakh Rupees can also file their tax returns.

6. Bank Mergers

The Ministry of Finance launched the ‘One State, One RRB’ policy, which will come into effect by May 1st. Around 15 rural banks situated across 11 states (including J&K, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar, Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, and Rajasthan) will be merged into a single Regional Rural Bank (RRB) per state. The total number of banks will eventually be reduced from 43 to 28.