COVID19 Announcements from Honorable Finance Minister Smt Nirmala Sitharaman | CPO INNOVATION

Posted on March 31, 2020 by Design in Design Innovation | 0 Comments

In a press release, Honorable Finance Minister Smt Nirmala Sitharaman and Honorable Minister of State Shri Anurag Singh Thakur have set out the following announcements in a bid to ease the economic gut-punch of the global coronavirus pandemic.

The Ministry of Finance has extended the deadlines for filing returns of goods and services tax (GST) in view of the coronavirus crisis and difficulties faced by taxpayers in meeting the compliance norms.

The last day to file GST for March, April and May has now been extended to June 30, 2020. For companies with turnover below INR 5 Crore no interest or late fee shall be applicable. For larger companies there will be a rate of 9% applicable.

Customs and Central Excise scheme “SABKA VISHWASH” a major success to settle indirect tax disputes, that got concluded once in January but was earlier extended to 31st March 2020 is now being extended to 30th June, 2020. No interest will be levied for payments done up to 30th June, 2020.

In a statement to the media, Honorable Finance Minister Smt Nirmala Sitharaman said, during this period although there is lockdown, we do not want any Import or Export stakeholder to be upset and therefore custom clearance will be operating 24X7 up to 30th June 2020.

Moving to MCA company provisions and their regulatory compliance-related matters, in respect of the MCA 21 Registry, there is a moratorium issued from 1st April till 30th September 2020 there shall not be any additional late fee for delayed filing.

There is a mandatory requirement for holding board meetings we are relaxing it for 60 days untill the next two quarters.

The 2018-19 income tax returns date has now been extended to 30th June 2020. For delay in filing returns, there will be a reduced interest of 9% applicable instead of 18%. Interest rates on TDS have now been reduced from 18% to 9%. Also, the last date to link Aadhar and PAN has been now postponed to 30th June, 2020.

As many as 513 people have been tested coronavirus positive in India so far, with eleven deaths.