Honourable Finance Minister has announced various reliefs from certain statutory compliance on account on Covid 19 Pandemic. Below is the list of relief/exemptions granted by Finance Ministry on 24 March 2020:
Income Tax Updates:
- Income Tax Return (ITR) due date for Financial Year 2018-19 (AY 2019-20) has been extended to 30th June 2020 from 31st March 2020
- Interest Payable under section 234ABC has been reduced to 9% from existing rate of 12% for payment made between 20th March 2020 and 30th June 2020
- Interest on late payment of TDS/TCS/Equalisation levy made between 20th March 2020 and 30th June 2020 will be levieble at 9% previously it was 18%
- Due date of Aadhaar PAN linking date extended to 30 June 2020 from 31 March 2020
- Vivaad Se Vishwas Scheme Extended to 30th June 2020 with no Additional Charge. Previously it was fixed for 31 March 2020
- Due date for all notices/orders/appeals/applications/reports/any other document/any compliance by taxpayers up-to 30th June, 2020. This is applicable for various law like Income tax, Black money act etc.
- Investments can be made upto 30th June 2020 to claim exemptions/deductions under chapter VI.
GST updates:
- GST Returns (all returns) for the month of February to May has been extended to 30th June 2020
- There will not be any Interest, Late fee and penalty for business having turnover upto 5 Crore
- Other companies more than 5 Crore turnover is not required to pay Late fee and penalty. However they are liable to pay interest at reduced rate of 9% per annum.
- Composition Scheme for Financial Year 2020-21 can be claimed upto 30th June 2020. Date for payment under composition scheme for period January 2020 to March 2020 extended to 30th June 2020.
- 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
- Due date for issue of notice, notification, approval order, sanction order, filing of appeal, furnishing of return, statements, applications, reports, any other documents etc has been extended to 30th June 2020.
ROC /MCA updates:
- Form 20A (commencement of business Certificate) is required to file within 12 month from the date of incorporation earlier it was 180 days.
- CARO 2020 has been deferred for one more year and now it will be applicable for financial year 2020-21
- Waiver from attending minimum one board meeting by Independent director for financial year 2019-20. Earlier independent director was compulsorily required to attend one board meeting.
- The mandatory requirement of holding meetings of the Board of the companies within prescribed period of 120 day has been extended to 180 days.
- Now Deposit reserve can be created by to 30Th June 2020 for maturing deposits during the financial year 2020-21. Further requirement to invest 15% of debentures maturing in a year also extended to 30th
- Waiver from compulsory requirement of minimum residency in India for a period of at least 182 days by at least one director of every company.
- 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
Custom:
- Custom Station will be working for 24*7 smooth and rapidly for Custom Clearance.
- Due date for issue of notice, notification, approval order, sanction order, filing of appeal, furnishing of return, statements, applications, reports, any other documents etc has been extended to 30th June 2020.
Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code:
Threshold limit for initiation of proceeding increased from 1 lakh to 1 Crore. Further section 7, 9 and 10 of the IBC 2016 may be suspended for a period of 6 months so as to stop companies at large from being forced into insolvency proceedings in such force measure causes of default.
Banking Updates:
- No charges on minimum balance
- No Charges for ATM withdrawal from other banks
- Reduction on digital payment transactions