Big relief: Most of compliance dates for GST and Income Tax returns extended to June end

In a major relief for millions of income tax and GST payers, the finance ministry Tuesday extended most of the dates for compliance with income tax laws and GST laws.

New Delhi: In a major relief for millions of income tax and GST payers, the finance ministry Tuesday extended most of the dates for compliance with income tax laws and GST laws. The last date for filing income tax return for FY 2018-19 has been extended to June 30, said the finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in a video conference.

Similarly, the government has also extended the due date for filing the GST returns to June 30 but there will be staggered dates for different regions to reduce the burden on GSTN portal as per the earlier scheme of things.

"We are doing that to ease the compliance burden so that those who have to do compliance with tax laws and regulatory laws, they enough have time to comply with them," said finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

Finance ministry also extended the deadline for linking Aadhaar with PAN card from March 31 to June 30.

Relief for direct tax payers

The government has extended the compliance date for all the rules related to Income Tax Act, Wealth Tax Act, Benami Transaction Act, Black Money Act, Vivad Se Vishwas Act, Securities Transaction Act, Commodities Transaction Tax, and Equalization Levy to June 30.

In case of Vivad Se Vishwas scheme announced in this year's budget and notified on March 17, the government has extended the deadline of scheme to June 30 without the payment of 10% penalty. The scheme was applicable till June 30 but the taxpayers availing the Vivad Se Vishwas scheme after March 31 were required to pay 10% penalty, but now the 10% penalty has been waived off for availing the scheme up to June 30.

Relief for GST payers

For GST returns the compliance date for filing the returns will be extended to last week of June 2020.

In a big relief to small and medium enterprises, the companies having turnover of less than Rs 5 crore in a financial year there will be no penalty or late fee.

And for the companies having turnover above Rs 5 crore in a year, the interest will be levied at the rate of 9% instead of 18% for any delayed payment between March 20 to June 30, 2020. However, no late fee or penalty will be charged if it is compiled before June 30.

Date for opting the composition scheme is extended till the last week of June and date for making payments and filing the return for FY 2019-20 for composition dealers has been extended to last week of June 2020.

The date for filing annual GST return for FY 2018-19 which was due on March 31 has been extended to June 30 this year.

Customs

In order to ensure a steady supply of imported raw material, the government has decided to ensure functioning of custom clearance on 24x7 mode for the next three months.

Relief for bank customers

Given the restrictions on movement due to lock down, the government has decided to do away with the minimum balance requirement for three months. Customers will not have to pay any penalty for not keeping any minimum balance in their bank accounts for the next three months.

In addition to this, the charges levied on use of ATM and debit cards on other bank’s ATM's, there will be no charges even beyond the permissible transactions. This relief is also given for next three months.

These two reliefs will be extended to the customers of both public and private sector banks.

Economic package yet to be announced

In response to a question about the possible announcement of a comprehensive economic relief package to deal with the devastating impact of the COVID-19 virus, the finance minister said the details of a comprehensive package are being worked out and it will be announced soon.

Every attention is being given to economic situation, PM is himself closely monitoring the situation, multi-layer task force is already working, industry leaders, group of MP's, a group of academics, a group of MP's who have an interest in economic issues, they have been working in sub-groups and giving their inputs that will be taken into account, she said.

(Article by Krishnanand Tripathi)