Latest announcements by Finance Minister during Lockdown

A sigh of relief came for a taxpayer when Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that a responsible citizen can file Returns of Income Tax for FY 2019 beyond the deadline mentioned earlier. The new deadline is set as June 30. The deadline extended might be because of crisis created by Coronavirus. She further assured economic support to business as well as commercial activities who are badly hit due to COVID19 is on the agenda of the government and will be available soon. 

GST filing date also extended and the moment this update came, it made lives of business and traders easy as they can now file GST Returns by June 30. It was also assured that no late fee will be levied in case of late filing of GST Returns which goes well with the firms having turnover till INR 5 crore. It also stated that when the turnover exceeds INR 5 crore and GST is filed within 15 days, interest rate @9% will be levied compared to the normal circumstances.

PAN and Aadhaar can now be linked till June 30 against a previous deadline of March 31. It is perhaps the big relief for a person who is not able to link his PAN with Aadhaar for some reason. The new deadline for Vivad se Vishwas scheme [1] also stood at June 30 and interest @ 10% is not required to be paid on the principal.

A relief for small and medium enterprises was also announced as Insolvency proceedings are being relaxed to INR 1 crore against existing INR 1 lakh. Company provisions are being relaxed by government which particularly applies to Board Meeting. Moreover, relaxation is being done in context of filing of Income Tax returns which goes well with newly incorporated Companies. Additional time of six months is given for the Declaration of commencement of business which will be a breather for newly incorporated Companies. Further, Custom clearance is included in the category of essential services although it will be applicable till June 30 which will be working round the clock and it comes as a big relief to people engaged in import as well as export.