CA Pooja Madhan

Finance Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman today announced several relief measures in view of the COVID-19 outbreak via video conferencing in the areas of Income Tax, GST, Customs and Central Excise, Corporate Affairs, Insolvency and Bankruptcy (IBC), Banking Sector and Commerce.

Following decisions has been taken by the Government of India providing relief to various sectors ;

Income Tax

  1. Last date for filing Income Tax Return for the FY 2018-19 has been extended from 31st March, 2020 to 30th June, 2020.
  2. Aadhaar-PAN linking deadline extended to 30th June, 2020 from 31st March, 2020.
  3. Vivaad Se Vishwas Scheme deadline without payment of additional 10% extended to 30th June from 31st March, 2020.
  4.  Due date for issue of notice, intimation, notification, approval order, sanction order, filing of appeal, furnishing of returns and statements, applications, reports, any other documents and time limit for the completion of proceedings by the authority and any other compliance by the taxpayer including investments extended till 30th June, 2020.
  5. For the delay in the payments of advance tax, self assessment tax, regular tax, TDS, TCS, equalization levy, STT and CTT made between 20th March, 2020 to 30th June, 2020, reduced rate of interest at the rate of 9% instead of 12%/18% per annum.

GST/Indirect Taxes

  1. For the businesses having annual turnover of less than Rs. 5 Cr. , GSTR-3B for the months of March, April and May can be filed by last week of June, 2020 without interest, late fee and penalty.
  2.  For the businesses having annual turnover of Rs. 5 Cr. Or more , GSTR-3B for the months of March, April and May can be filed by last week of June, 2020  along with a reduced rate of interest @9% per annum from 15 days after due date but without late fee and penalty.
  3. Due date for opting for the composition scheme has been extended till last week of June, 2020. Further the due date for making payments for the quarter ending 31st March, 2020 and filing of return for the FY 2019-20 has been extended till 30th June, 2020.
  4. Due date for filing annual returns under GST for the FHY 2018-19, which was earlier due by 31st March, 2020 has been extended till 30th June, 2020.
  5. Due date for issue of notice , notification, approval order, sanction order, filing of appeal, furnishing of return, statements, applications, reports, any other documents, time limit for any compliance under the GST laws which was due between 20th March, 2020 to 29th June, 2020 shall be extended till 30th June, 2020.
  6. Payment under Sabka Vishwas Scheme has been extended to 30th June, 2020.

Customs

  1. 24X7 Custom clearance till end of 30th June, 2020
  2. Due date for issue of notice, notification, approval order, sanction order, filing of appeal, furnishing applications, reports, any other documents etc., time limit for any compliance under the Customs Act and other allied Laws where the time limit is expiring between 20th March 2020 to 29th June 2020 shall be extended to 30th June 2020.

Financial Services

  1. Relaxations for 3 months Debit cardholders to withdraw cash for free from any other banks’ ATM for 3monthsWaiver of minimum balance fee Reduced bank charges for digital trade transactions for all trade finance consumers.

Corporate Affairs

  1. No additional fees shall be charged for late filing during a moratorium period from 01st April to 30th September 2020, in respect of any document, return, statement etc., required to be filed in the MCA-21Registry, irrespective of its due date, which will not only reduce the compliance burden, including financial burden of companies/ LLPs at large, but also enable long-standing non-compliant companies/LLPs to make a ‘fresh start’;
  2. The mandatory requirement of holding meetings of the Board of the companies within prescribed interval provided in the Companies Act (120 days), 2013, shall be extended by a period of 60 days till next two quarters i.e., till 30th September;
  3. Applicability of Companies (Auditor’s Report) Order, 2020 shall be made applicable from the financial year 2020-2021 instead of from 2019-2020 notified earlier. This will significantly ease the burden on companies &their auditors for the year 2019-20.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. Requirement to invest 15% of debentures maturing during a particular year in specified instruments before 30th April 2020, may be done so before 30th June 2020.
  7. Newly incorporated companies are required to file a declaration for Commencement of Business within 6 months of incorporation. An additional time of 6 more months shall be allowed.
  8. 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 the Companies Act, shall not be treated as a violation.
  9. 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 majeurecauses of default.
  10. Detailed notifications/circulars in this regard shall be issued by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs separately.

Department of Fisheries

  1. All Sanitary Permits (SIPs) for import of SPF Shrimp Broodstock and other Agriculture inputs expiring between 01.03.2020 to 15.04.2020 extended by 3 months.
  2. Delay upto 1 month in arrival of consignments to be condoned.
  3. Rebooking of quarantine cubicles for cancelled consignments in Aquatic Quarantine Facility (AQF) Chennai without additional booking charges.
  4. The verification of documents and grant of NOC for Quarantine would be relaxed from 7 days to 3 days.

Department of Commerce

Extension of timelines for various compliance and procedures will be given. Detailed notifications will be issued by Ministry of Commerce.