COVID-19: Highlights of changes announced by FM

Rohit Kumar Singh , Last updated: 25 March 2020
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The CoronaVirus (Covid-19) outbreak has not only impacted lives of general citizens, it has also severely impacted the trade and business community. The lockouts and curfew across various cities has resulted in massive downfall in numbers and business across the country. The business community was expecting concrete relief both in terms of relaxation of deadlines and sops for payment of taxes and interest.

Even the Hon'ble supreme court recently ruled on Force Majeure clause which may save businesses from delay in execution of several contacts and their financial implications.

To address some of the key issues, Hon'ble Union Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman has today announced several important relief measures, especially on statutory and regulatory compliance matters related to several sectors, taken by the Government for the businesses in view of COVID-19 outbreak. The same may be summarised as under -

Highlights of the changes announced -
A. Extension of Due Dates, waiver of interest, late fees, penalty and additional time for payment of taxes
Sl. No.	Topic	Sector		Particulars		Original Date		Revised Date		Additional Comments
1	Extension of Due date	Income Tax		Income tax returns for the FY 18-19		31.03.2020		30.06.2020		It shall allow more time to filing Income tax Returns for FY 2018-19
2	Extension of date	Direct Tax		Vivad se Vishwas scheme – Payment		31.03.2020		30.06.2020		No interest for this period shall be charged if amount is paid by 30th June, 2020
3	Extension of date	Direct Tax		Vivad se Vishwas scheme – Waiver of 10% additional amount		NA		30.06.2020		No additional 10% amount, if payment made by June 30, 2020
4	Extension of date	Income Tax		Aadhaar-PAN linking		31.03.2020		30.06.2020		Additional time to link Aadhar with PAN Card
5	Extension of Due date – GSTR 3B (< 5 Cr)	Goods and Services Tax		Extension of Due date for filing GSTR 3B for the months of March, April and May 2020 – Aggregate annual turnover less than Rs. 5 Crore		Staggered manner from 20/22/24th of next month		Last week of June 2020		No interest, late fee, and penalty to be charged
6	Extension of Due date – GSTR 3B (> 5 Cr)	Goods and Services Tax		Extension of Due date for filing GSTR 3B for the months of March, April and May 2020 – Other than above category (Aggregate annual turnover more than Rs. 5 Crore)		20th of the next month		Last week of June 2020		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
7	Extension of due date	Goods and Services Tax		Date for opting for composition scheme is extended till the last week of June, 2020.		31.03.20		Last week of June 2020		Additional time to opt for Composition Scheme. Intimation may be filed in Form GST CMP – 02
Highlights of the changes announced -
B. Extension of Due Dates, waiver of interest, late fees, penalty and additional time for payment of taxes
Sl. No.	Topic		Sector		Particulars		Original Date		Revised Date		Additional Comments
8	Payment of Tax under Composition Scheme		Goods and Services Tax		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		30.04.2020		30.06.2020		It shall allow more time to pay taxes under Composition scheme for quarter ending Mar'20 (in Form GST CMP -08)
9	Annual Return		Goods and Services Tax		GST annual returns of FY 18-19 is extended till the last week of June 20		31.03.2020		30.06.2020		This was already announced in 39th GST Council Meeting
10	Interest on Delayed payment of taxes		Direct Taxes		For delayed payments of advanced tax, self-assessment tax, regular tax, TDS, TCS, equalization levy, STT, CTT made between 20th March 20 and 30th June 20 reduction of interest is proposed.		Various dates		30.06.2020		Reduced interest rate at 9% instead of 12 %/18 % per annum for this period No late fee/penalty for delay relating to this period.
11	Custom clearance		Customs Laws		24X7 Custom clearance till end of 30th June, 2020		NA		NA		Expediting clearance of custom cargo round the clock till 30th June 2020

COVID-19: Highlights of changes announced by FM

Highlights of the changes announced -
C. Time limit for Issuance of notice, filing of appeal, furnishing of returns, completion of proceedings, etc.
Sl. No.	Topic	Sector	Particulars	Original Date	Revised Date	Additional Comments
1	Extension of due date	Various Laws	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	20th March 2020 to 29th June 2020	30th June 2020	Relaxation of due date to 30th June 20 Date of filing appeal and completion of assessment stands extended to 30th June 2020
2	Extension of due date	GST/ Indirect Tax	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	20th March 2020 to 29th June 2020	30th June 2020	Relaxation of due date to 30th June 20 Date of filing appeal and completion of assessment stands extended to 30th June 2020
3	Extension of due date	Customs Law	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	20th March 2020 to 29th June 2020	30th June 2020	Relaxation of due date to 30th June 2020

Highlights of the changes announced -
D. Relaxation for Financial Sector for 3 months
Sl. No.	Topic	Sector	Particulars	Additional Comments
1	Cash Withdrawal	Financial Services	Debit cardholders to withdraw cash for free from any other banks' ATM for 3 months	Currently banks charge some fees beyond certain number of transactions for usage of ATM of other Banks
2	Minimum Balance	Financial Services	Non Maintenance of minimum Balance - Waiver of minimum balance fee	Banks charge penalty for non-maintenance of minimum balance for certain accounts
3	Reduction in bank charges	Financial Services	Reduced bank charges for digital trade transactions for all trade finance consumers	A positive step which shall assist business customers for encouraging digital transactions at reduced cost

Copy of Press Release Notes issued by the Ministry of Finance can be viewed by clicking - https://pib.gov.in/PressReleseDetail.aspx?PRID=1607942

Comment:

It will be interesting to see, how effective the steps will prove to be in future with government announcing complete lock down for next 21 days starting today. The unorganized sector is looking for stimulus to survive. It would have been better if Interest was completely waived and deadline for other forms were relaxed too. Another option which may be explored is to convert all GST returns into quarterly (GSTR 1 and GSTR 3B) with quarterly payment. A much needed breather in the tough times ahead.

We expect more relaxations and stimulus for other sectors like waiver of taxes, interest, penalty, etc. in the days to come.