In the wake of second wave of Covid in India, as many as 11 compliances under Goods and Services Tax (GST) and 15 compliances under the Income Tax Act have been requested to the government to be deferred by a period of three months by Traders’ body Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT).
Postponement Of Compliances By 3 Months
The body requested Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman about the postponement of these compliances as the non-compliance of these, would attract huge penalties on traders across the country. The body consists around 8 crore traders across 40,000 trade associations in India.
CAIT National President BC Bhartia and Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal said in a statement cited the strict precautionary measures such as complete curfew, night curfew, 72-hour lockdown, complete lockdown, containment zones etc. as the reason behind extending the compliances by 3 months as it would not be possible to comply with all these statutory compliances in time.
According to CAIT, returns including GSTR-3B, GSTR-1, GSTR-4, CMP-08, GSTR-5, GSTR-5A, GSTR-6, GSTR-7, and GSTR-8 have been due in April along with the due date for issue of TDS certificate for tax deducted under section 194-IA, IB, and 194M, a quarterly statement in respect of foreign remittances in form 15CC, furnishing form 3BB, form 24G, challan-cum-statement in respect of tax deducted under section 194-IA, etc., of the Income Tax Act.
Daily Business Losses Due to Restrictions Imposed to Curb Covid Spread
Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal said that due to account full lockdown, partial lockdown, night curfews, and other forms of restrictions daily loss for overall India is around Rs 30,000 crore. He said that the daily business loss for Delhi alone is approximately Rs 600 crore.
On Saturday, the deadline for payments under the Direct Tax Vivad Se Vishwas Act, 2020 and some compliances under the Income Tax Act was extended by by two months till June 30 by the government.
The statement of Finance Ministry reads, “Time limit for passing of any order for assessment or reassessment under the Income-tax Act, 1961 the time limit for which is provided under section 153 or section 153B thereof; Time limit for passing an order consequent to direction of DRP under sub-section (13) of section 144C of the Act; Time limit for issuance of notice under section 148 of the Act for reopening the assessment where income has escaped assessment; and Time Limit for sending intimation of processing of Equalisation Levy under sub-section (1) of section 168 of the Finance Act 2016”.