Finance
Minister announces several relief measures relating to Statutory and Regulatory
compliance matters across Sectors in view of COVID-19 outbreak
The Union Finance & Corporate Affairs
Minister Smt. Niramla Sitharaman today announced several important relief
measures taken by the Government of India in view of COVID-19 outbreak,
especially on statutory and regulatory compliance matters related to several
sectors. While addressing the press conference through video conferencing here
today, Smt. Sitharaman announced much-needed relief measures in areas of Income
Tax, GST, Customs & Central Excise, Corporate Affairs, Insolvency &
Bankruptcy Code (IBC) Fisheries, Banking Sector and Commerce.
The Minister of State for Finance &
Corporate Affairs Shri Anurag Singh Thakur was also present besides Shri A.B.
Pandey, Finance Secretary and Shri Atanu Chakraborty, Secretary, Department of
Economic Affairs.
Following are the decisions with respect to
statutory and regulatory compliance matters related to various sectors: —
Income Tax
- Extend last date
for income tax returns for (FY 18-19) from 31st March,
2020 to 30th June, 2020.
- Aadhaar-PAN
linking date to be extended from 31st March, 2020 to 30th June,
2020.
- Vivad
se Vishwas scheme – no additional 10% amount, if payment
made by June 30, 2020.
- 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 for completion
of proceedings by the authority and any compliance by the taxpayer
including investment in 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, CTT Law, Equalization Levy law, Vivad Se Vishwas
law where the time limit is expiring between 20th March
2020 to 29th June 2020 shall be extended to 30th
June 2020.
- For delayed
payments of advanced tax, self-assessment tax, regular tax, TDS,
TCS, equalization levy, STT, CTT made between 20th March
2020 and 30th June 2020, reduced
interest rate at 9% instead of 12 %/18 % per annum (
i.e. 0.75% per month instead of 1/1.5 percent per month) will be charged
for this period. No late fee/penalty shall be charged for
delay relating to this period.
- Necessary legal
circulars and legislative amendments for giving effect to the aforesaid
relief shall be issued in due course.
GST/Indirect Tax
- Those having
aggregate annual turnover less than Rs. 5 Crore Last date can file
GSTR-3B due in March, April and May 2020 by the last week of
June, 2020. No interest, late fee, and penalty to be charged.
- Others can file
returns due in March, April and May 2020 by last week of June 2020
but the same would attract reduced rate of interest @9 % per annum from
15 days after due date (current interest rate is 18 % per
annum). No late fee and penalty to be charged, if complied before till 30th June
2020.
- Date for opting
for composition scheme is extended till the last week of June,
2020. Further, the last date for making payments for the quarter
ending 31st March, 2020 and filing of return for
2019-20 by the composition dealers will be extended till the
last week of June, 2020.
- Date for filing
GST annual returns of FY 18-19, which is due on 31st March,
2020 is extended till the last week of June 2020.
- 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 where the time
limit is expiring between 20th March 2020 to 29th
June 2020 shall be extended to 30th June 2020.
- Necessary legal
circulars and legislative amendments to give effect to the aforesaid
GST relief shall follow with the approval of GST Council.
- Payment date
under Sabka
Vishwas Scheme shall be
extended to 30th June,
2020. No interest for this period shall be charged if paid by 30th June,
2020.
Customs
- 24X7 Custom
clearance till end of 30th June, 2020
- 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
- Relaxations for 3
months
- Debit cardholders to withdraw cash for free from any other banks’
ATM for 3 months
- Waiver of minimum balance fee
- Reduced bank charges for digital trade transactions for all trade
finance consumers
Corporate Affairs
- 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-21 Registry, 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’;
- 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;
- 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.
- 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 2020-21 before 30th April 2020 shall be allowed to be complied with
till 30th June 2020.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Detailed
notifications/circulars in this regard shall be issued by the Ministry of
Corporate Affairs separately.
Department of Fisheries
- 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
- 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
Department of Commerce
Extension of timelines for various compliance
and procedures will be given. Detailed notifications will be issued by Ministry
of Commerce.
****
RM/KMN
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