Coronavirus: Govt announces financial relief for common man, businessmen
New Delhi/UNI: In view of the situation arising out of Coronavirus spread, the government on Tuesday announced a variety of exemptions to the general public and businessmen related to income tax returns and last date of compliance among others.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, along with her deputy Anurag Thakur, made several announcements related to Income Tax, Goods and Services Tax (GST), Customs and Excise, Insolvency and Bankruptcy Law, Banking, Fisheries among others.
In her address to media via video conference, the Minister said in most cases, the compliance date has been extended to June 30.
Also, giving relief to the common people, in an online conMs Sitharaman said that there will be no charge for withdrawing money from the ATM of another bank for three months.
There will be no minimum balance condition for the account holders for three months.
Regarding an economic package, the Finance Minister said it was expected to be announced soon.
Ms Sitharaman said the last date for filing the delayed return for 2018-19 has been increased from March 31 to June 30 and the interest charged on it has been reduced from 12 to 9 per cent.
Also, the rate of interest on late submission of tax deducted at source has been reduced from 18 per cent to 9 per cent, although its last date will remain the same as June 30.
o a question on economic package, Ms Sithraman said, ''Work is going on and we are very close to coming up with an economic package that will be announced sooner rather than later.''
She said the regulators, Reserve Bank, and Finance Ministry are all working together to keep monitoring the developments and volatility in the stock market.
''SEBI has come up with some set of guidelines and also stated its position,'' she maintained.
The Minister said for newly incorporated companies there is a requirement to file declaration for the commencement of business within six months of incorporation. ''Now we are giving them an additional time of six more months,'' she maintained.
She also said that the government was watching the situation and if the situation continues beyond April, then they will consider suspending of Section 7, Section 9 and Section 10 of IPC for six months.
In Commerce department, the Minister said for practical purpose, principles followed will be extension of timelines to procedural eligibility point of view.
There will be no extension of schemes or guidelines, she added.
The Minister stressed that the government was consistently monitoring the markets three times a day.
She said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was himself closely monitoring the situation. The Minister said consultations are being held with subgroups, intellectuals and stakeholders and intensive work was being carried out on these inputs.
Multiple layers of taskforce were also working and the work was at its peak, she said.
Mentioning the relief for imports and exporters, Customs clearance is now an essential service, till June 30, 2020 and it will be working 24 by 7.
She stressed that the focus is on citizens' safety and relief.
''People should not have to worry about rules compliance and there should not any pressure on them. We do not want that,'' she maintained.
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