COVID-19: FM Nirmala Sitharaman announces relief measures for consumers and corporates

dressing a press conference on Tuesday, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman anunced a number of relief measures for consumers and corporate sector in wake of vel coronavirus crisis.  measures included extending last date to file IT returns and composition returns to June 30, making customs clearance an essential service, relaxing mandatory requirement of board meetings for a period of 60 days and so forth. Furrmore, she stated that Centre would unveil a financial relief pack very soon. 

Re measures anunced by government here: 

• last date for filing March, April, and May 2020 returns and also composition returns is being extended to June 30, 2020. 
• delayed payment interest rate has been reduced from 12% to 9%. 
• Ahar-PAN linking date extended to June 30, 2020. 
• Viv se Vishwas scheme extended until June 30, 2020.  10 percent ditional charge will be incurred on this scheme till June 30, 2020. 
• Sabka Vishwas indirect tax dispute redressal scheme extended to June 30, 2020.  
• interest, late fee, penalty to be charged for companies that have less than Rs.5 crore turver. 
• Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code default limit has been increased from Rs.1 lakh to Rs.1 crore 
• Companies Auditors’ Report Order 2020, which was going to come into force in 2019-20, has been shifted to 2020-21. 
• Possibility of suspending Section 7, 9 and 10 of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code at a later st if current situation continues beyond six months. 
• A delay of one month will be condoned in arrival of consignment of fisheries. Import permits for fisheries expiring in April have been extended by three months. 
• Debit cardholders can withdraw cash from any bank’s ATM free of charge for next three months. Moreover, re will be minimum balance requirement. 
• Customs clearance has been designated as an essential service so that importers and exporters are t impacted. 
• mandatory requirement of holding board meetings has been relaxed by a period of 60 days. If Independent directors have t been able to hold even one meeting, it will t be seen as a violation. 
• Bank charges for digital tre and transactions will be reduced. 

Coronavirus crisis

492 confirmed cases of vel Coronavirus with 9 deaths have been reported in India.  Centre anunced stringent measures to combat vel Coronavirus crisis. For instance, international flights were barred to land in India from March 22 for a week. On Monday, it was declared that domestic flights would also t be operational from midnight of March 24 until March 31. Currently, a total lockdown has been imposed in 32 states and Union Territories.