Nirmala Sitharaman Speech Updates: Government Defers Tax Filing, Company Law Compliance Deadlines 

Key Takeaways

• Income tax filing and GST returns deadline extended to June 30.
• Due date to complete pending payments of central and excise duties extended to June 30.
• Deadline for firms to invest 15 percent debt maturing in a year in specified instruments extended to June 30 from April 30.
• Minimum balance charges waived; no fees for using other banks' ATMs
• Threshold for invoking insolvency raised to Rs 1 crore from Rs 1 lakh
• RBI, SEBI and Finance Ministry monitoring markets carefully

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is set to speak on the “statutory and regulatory compliance matters”, according to her tweet, amid the novel coronavirus outbreak in India.

Her tweet also mentioned that a financial relief package for Covid-19 induced economic crisis is in the works.

Total confirmed cases of the coronavirus in India stand at 492 with nine deaths. Globally, most governments have announced fiscal measures and relief packages, including direct cash transfers, to citizens and businessmen amid these testing times.

Last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a task force, led by Sitharaman, to come up with measures to fight coronavirus and ensure their correct implementation.

Assuring citizens that a financial relief plan for those affected by coronavirus disruptions is under way, the finance ministry has come up with relief around statutory and regulatory compliance as the financial year comes to an end, Sitharaman said.

The ministry will announce compliance and regulation in the following order:

• Income tax
• GST
• Customs and Central Excise
• Ministry of Corporate Affairs
• Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code
• Fisheries
• Bank-related compliance

• Interest rate on delayed payments of income tax for financial year 2018-19 has been reduced to reduced to 9 percent from 12 percent.
• Last date for Aadhaar-Pan linkage is June 30, 2020
• Vivad se Vishawas scheme has also been extended to June 30,2020. There will not be any 10 percent additional charge from now till June 30.
• All last dates and deadlines of document submission and compliance, has been moved to June 30. This includes the last date for filing income tax returns.

Other due date: Issue of notice intimation, notification, approval order, sanction order, filing of appeal, furnishing of returns, return statement, applications, reports, any other documents, any compliance by taxpayer, incl. investment in savings instruments, for rollover benefits under I-T Act, Wealth Tax Act, Prohibition of Benami Transactions Act, Black Money Act, STT Law, CTT Law, Equalisation Levy Law, Vivad Se Vishwas Law – where time limit was limit was expiring March 20 now extended to June 30.

Last date for filing March, April and May 2020 GST returns and compensation returns extended to June 30, 2020.

No late fee or penalty will be charged for companies with a turnover Rs 5 crore or lower that file GST late. Those with a turnover of more than Rs 5 crore, will pay a reduced interest rate of 9 percent.

Due date to complete pending payments of central and excise duties have been extended to June 30, 2020, without any interest or late fee charge.

During the period of lockdown we do not want to any exporter to face any difficulty, customs will do their duty 24*7.

As most people work from home during the lockdown period, companies and board that do not hold even one meeting with their independent directors will not be held under violation of rules, Sitharaman said.

Other highlights:

• MCA 21 registry, moratorium issued from April 1 to Sep. 30, 2020
• There shall not be any additional fee for late filing
• Relaxing norms for holding board meeting to 60 days, this relaxation is till next two quarters
• For newly incorporated companies, requirement for filing declaration for commencement of business is 6 months, that is being extended by another 6 months
• A director of a company who hasn’t stayed in India for 182 days or more, will not be held under violation under the Companies Act.
• Deadline to create a deposit reserve of 20 percent till April 30 has been moved to June 30.
• Deadline to invest 15 percent debentures maturing in a year in specified instruments - a mandatory move - has been moved from April 30 to June 30.

In order to prevent triggering of IBC proceedings for medium and small enterprises, the default threshold limit is being increased to Rs 1 crore from the previous Rs 1 lakh, Sitharaman said.

The ministry may consider suspending Section 7 , Section 9 and Section 10 of the IBC, for a period of 6 months, if the situation continues in a similar manner.

All sanitary export permits which were to expire between April 1 and April 15, are being extended by three more months, Sitharaman said.

The delay of arrival of assignments up to one month, will be overlooked.

Rebooking of quarantined cubicles in Chennai’s aquarium, for cancelled assignments will not lead to additional booking charges.

• For the next three months, debit card holders can withdraw cash from any other bank’s ATM without charge.
• Complete waiver of minimum balance requirement of bank accounts. No penalty will be charged for breaching the minimum balance.
• Bank charges are being reduced for digital transactions.

These changes and provisions have been made keeping in mind that citizens need to, and should, stay indoors unless it is absolutely necessary to venture out, the Finance Ministry said.

• All regulators, RBI and Finance Ministry are working together and monitoring the volatility in the stock markets
• SEBI has come out with norms to contain short-term volatility
• Consciously monitoring stock markets three times a day