FM Nirmala Sitharaman announced several relief measures across sectors in view of COVID-19

NEW DELHI: The Union Finance & Corporate Affairs Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has announced several important relief measures taken by the Government of India in view of the COVID-19 outbreak, especially on statutory and regulatory compliance matters related to several sectors. While addressing the press conference through video conferencing here on Tuesday, Sitharaman announced the 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 Anurag Singh Thakur was also present besides AB Pandey, Finance Secretary and 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

* Extended the last date for income tax returns for (FY 18-19) from March 31, 2020 to June 30, 2020.

* Aadhaar-PAN linking date to be extended from March 31, 2020 to June 30, 2020.

* Vivad se Vishwas scheme – no additional 10% amount, if payment made by June 30, 2020.

* Due dates for the issue of notice, intimation, notification, approval order, sanction order, filing of appeal, furnishing of return, statements, applications, reports, any other documents and the time-limit for completion of proceedings by the authority and any compliance by the taxpayer including investment in saving instruments or investments for rollover 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 March 20, 2020 to June 29, 2020 shall be extended to June 30, 2020.

* For delayed payments of advanced tax, self-assessment tax, regular tax, TDS, TCS, equalization levy, STT, CTT made between March 20, 2020 and June 30, 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

* For those having aggregate annual turnover less than Rs. 5 crore, the last date to file GSTR-3B due in March, April and May 2020 is 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 at the rate of 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 June 30, 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 March 31, 2020 and filing of return for 2019-20 by the composition dealers will be extended till the last week of June, 2020.

* The date for filing GST annual returns of FY 18-19, which is due on March 31, 2020 is extended till the last week of June 2020.

* The 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 March 20, 2020 to June 29, 2020 shall be extended to June 30, 2020.

* Necessary legal circulars and legislative amendmentsto 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 June 30, 2020. No interest for this period shall be charged if paid by June 30, 2020.

CUSTOMS

* 24X7 Custom clearance till end of 30th June, 2020

* The 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 March 20, 2020 to June 29, 2020 shall be extended to June 30, 2020.

FINANCIAL SERVICES

CORPORATE AFFAIRS

* No additional fees shall be charged for late filing during a moratorium period from April 1 to September 30, 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 September 30;

* 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 April 30, 2020 shall be allowed to be complied with till June 30, 2020.

* Requirement to invest 15% of debentures maturing during a particular year in specified instruments before April 30, 2020, may be done so before June 30, 2020.

* Newly incorporated companies are required to file a declaration for Commencement of Business within six months of incorporation. An additional time of six 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 April 30, 2020, we may consider suspending Section 7, 9 and 10 of the IBC 2016 for a period of six 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 one 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. (PIB)

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