In these tough times where entire world is fighting against Covid-19 outbreak and where India has gone under complete lockdown from 24th March 2020 onwards for 21 days, the taxpayers and professionals were getting a lot of inconvenience due to such lockdown.
To provide some relief and as a precautionary measures our Union Finance & Corporate Affairs Minister Smt. Niramla Sitharaman announced several important relief measures in view of COVID-19 outbreak, especially on statutory and regulatory compliance matters related to several sectors. The measures are provided in the area of Income Tax, GST, Customs & Central Excise, Corporate Affairs, Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code (IBC), Fisheries, Banking Sector and Commerce.
Here are major reliefs which are granted:
1. Relief under Income Tax
•Last date of filing of ITR for F.Y. 2018-19 which was due on 31st March, 2020 has been extended to 30th June, 2020.
•Aadhaar-PAN linking date has been extended from 31 March, 2020 to 30 June, 2020.
•Vivaad se Vishwas Scheme – Disputed tax can be paid by 30 June, 2020 without additional 10% of the amount.
•Due dates for issue of notice, intimation, notification, approval order, sanction order, filing of appeal,furnishing of return, statements, applications, reports, any other documents and time limit forcompletion of proceedings by the authority and any compliance by the taxpayer including investmentin saving instruments or investments for roll over benefit of capital gains under Income Tax Act,Wealth Tax Act, Prohibition of Benami Property Transaction Act, Black Money Act, STT law, CTTLaw, Equalization Levy law, Vivad Se Vishwas law where the time limit is expiring between 20March 2020 to 29 June 2020 shall be extended to 30th June 2020.
•For delayed pay+6ments of advanced tax, self-assessment tax, regular tax, TDS, TCS, equalization levy,STT, CTT made between 20th March 2020 and 30 June 2020, reduced interest rate at 9% insteadof 12 %/18 % per annum ( i.e. 0.75% per month instead of 1/1.5 percent per month) will be chargedfor this period. No late fee/penalty shall be charged fordelay relating to this period.
2.Relief under GST/Indirect Taxes
•For suppliers having aggregate turnover less than 5 Crores, Due date of filing of GSTR-3B falling in the month of March, April and May, 2020 have been extended till last week of June, 2020. Levy of interest, late fee, and penalty has been waived off.
•For suppliers having aggregate turnover more than 5 crores, all due dates falling in the month of March, April and May 2020 has been extended till last week of June 2020. However, late payment of taxes will attract interest at reduced rates @9 % per annum from 15 days after due date instead of current rate of 18 % per annum. However, late fees and penalty has been waived off, if complied before till 30th June 2020.
•Date for opting for composition scheme is extended till the last week of June, 2020. Further, the lastdate for making payments for the quarter ending 31 March, 2020 and filing of return for 2019-20 bythe composition dealers has been extended till the last week of June, 2020.
•Last date of filing of GST annual returns for FY 18-19 has been extended till 30th June 2020 from 31st March, 2020.
•Due date for issue of notice, notification, approval order, sanction order, filing of appeal, furnishing ofreturn, statements, applications, reports, any other documents, time limit for any compliance under theGST laws where the time limit is expiring between 20 March 2020 to 29th June 2020 has beenextended to 30th June 2020.
•Payment date under Sabka Vishwas Scheme shall be extended to30th June, 2020. No interest for this period shall be charged if paid by 30th June, 2020.
3. Relief under Customs
•24 X 7 Custom clearance will be available till end of 30th June, 2020.
•Due date falling or time limit expiring between 20th March 2020 to 29th June 2020 under the Customs Act and other allied law has been extended till 30th June 2020. Such Due date or time limit may be for issue of notice, notification, approval order, sanction order, filing of appeal, furnishing applications, reports, any other documents etc. under the Customs Act and other allied Laws.
4. Relief under Financial Services
•Following relaxations are provided for 3 months to cope up with the crisis being faced by people during this lockdown situation:
a)Debit cardholders can withdraw cash for free from any other banks’ ATM for 3 months.
b)Account holders can withdraw minimum balance as well without any minimum balance fee
c)Reduced bank charges for digital trade transactions for all trade finance consumers
5. Relief under Corporate Affairs
•One of major relief which is given is wavier of additional fee of any document, returns, statements etc. filed with MCA-21 registry during the moratorium period of 1st April, 2020 to 30th September, 2020 irrespective of its due date. This wavier will not only reduce the compliance burden, including financial burden of companies/ LLPs at large, but also give a chance to long-standing non-compliant companies/ LLPs to make a ‘fresh start’. This is a very good move by the government wherein non-compliant company/LLP can complete their filings without incurring such a huge additional fees.
•As per Companies Act, 2013, every company is mandatorily required to hold meetings of the Board of the companies within interval of 120 days. Such interval shall be extended by a period of 60 days till next two quarters i.e., till 30th September;
•Earlier reporting under Companies (Auditor’s Report) Order, 2020 was getting applicable from F.Y. 2019-20 onwards. However, now it shall be made applicable from the financial year 2020-2021 instead of from 2019-2020 notified earlier.
•As per Schedule 4 to the Companies Act, 2013, Independent Directors are required to hold at least one meeting without the attendance of Non-independent directors and members of management. For the year 2019-20, if the IDs of a company have not been able to hold even one meeting, the same shall not be viewed as a violation.
•Requirement to create a Deposit reserve of 20% of deposits maturing during the financial year 2020-21before 30th April 2020 shall be allowed to be complied with till 30th June 2020.
•Requirement of investing 15% of debentures maturing during a particular year in specified instruments before 30th April 2020, may be done so before 30th June 2020.
•Newly incorporated company is required to file a declaration with RoC for Commencement of Business within 6 months of incorporation. However, an additional time of 6 more months shall be allowed.
•Non-compliance of minimum residency in India for a period of at least 182 days by at least one director of every company, under section 149 of companies act, shall not be treated as a violation
•Due to the emerging financial distress faced by most companies on account of the large-scale economic distress caused by COVID 19, it has been decided to raise the threshold of default under section 4 of the IBC 2016 to Rs 1 crore (from the existing threshold of Rs 1 lakh). This will by and large prevent triggering of insolvency proceedings against MSMEs. If the current situation continues beyond 30th of April 2020, we may consider suspending section 7, 9 and 10 of the IBC 2016 for a period of 6 months so as to stop companies at large from being forced into insolvency proceedings in such force majeure causes of default.
6. Relief under Department of Fisheries
•All Sanitary Permits (SIPs) for import of SPF Shrimp Broodstock and other Agriculture inputs expiring between 1st March, 2020 to 15th April, 2020 is extended by 3 months
•Delay upto 1 month in arrival of consignments to be condoned.
•Rebooking of quarantine cubicles for cancelled consignments in Aquatic Quarantine Facility (AQF) Chennai without additional booking charges
•The verification of documents and grant of NOC for Quarantine would be relaxed from 7 days to 3 days
In these difficult times, we hope all of youwill stay at home, protect yourself, protect others, stay healthy and fight strongly with COVID-19.
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Source:https://manishanilgupta.com/blog/much-awaited-relief-measures-by-government-amid-coronavirus-pandemic/
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