Reliefs For Companies & Business Sector under Covid-19

The vary current topic corona is affecting each and every person of the society taking from house wife to companies, business, employer, employee, labour, financial market, banks etc.

In accordance with the Guidelines for the Prevention of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID19) released by the Government of  India, all companies except those that belong to the basic & essential commodity sector were temporarily suspended its manufacturing and operational facilities.

In order to support and enable Companies and Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs) in India to focus on taking necessary measures to address the COVID-19 threat, including the economic disruptions caused by it, the following measures have been implemented by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs to reduce their compliance burden and other risks

Special Measures under Companies Act, 2013 (CA-2013) and Limited Liability Partnership Act, 2008 in view of COVID-19 outbreak

1. A web based new e-Form COVID-19 Companies Affirmation of Readiness (e-Form CAR) which is required to be filed by all the Companies & LLP on or before March 30, 2020. All The Companies & LLP has to submit the e-Form CAR endorsing that it is in compliance of COVID-19 guidelines including work from home policy.
2. As we all know that all the newly incorporated companies are required to file a declaration for Commencement of Business within 180 days of incorporation under section 10A of the CA-13. An additional period of 180 more days is allowed for this.
3. Failure by at least one director of each company to comply with minimum residency in India for at least 182 days shall not be considered as non compliance for fiscal year 2019-2020 under Section 149 of the Companies Act 2013.
4. The mandatory requirement of holding meetings of the Board of the companies within the interval of 120 days stands extended by a period of 60 days till next two quarters i.e., till 30^1h Accordingly, as a one-time relaxation the gap between two consecutive meetings of the Board may extend to 180 days till the next two quarters, instead of 120 days as required in the Companies Act 2013.
5. For the period from March 19, 2020 to June 30, 2020, the meetings may be held through video conferencing or other audio visual mean, for the matter(s) previously restricted, which in-alia includes, the approval of financial statement and Board report.
6. No additional fees shall be charged for late filing during a moratorium period from 01^s1April to 30^th September 2020, in respect of any document, return, statement etc., required to be filed in the MCA-21 Registry. irrespective of its due date, which will not only reduce the compliance burden, including financial burden of companies/ LLPs at large, but also enable long-standing non­compliant companies/ LLPs to make a ‘fresh start’.
7. The Government of India has notified COVID-19 as disaster, accordingly spending of CSR funds for COVID-19 is eligible CSR activity.
8. The Companies (Auditor’s Report) Order, 2020 shall be made applicable from the financial year 2020-2021 instead of being applicable from the financial year 2019-2020 notified earlier. This will significantly ease the burden on companies & their auditors for the financial year 2019-20. A separate notification has been issued for this purpose.
9. Requirement under section 73(2)(c) of CA-13 to create the deposit repayment reserve of 20% of deposits maturing during the financial year 2020-21 before 30^thApril 2020 shall be allowed to be complied with till 30^th June 2020.
10. Requirement under rule 18 of the Companies (Share Capital & Debentures) Rules, 2014 to invest or deposit at least 15% of amount of debentures maturing in specified methods of investments or deposits before 30th April 2020, may be complied with till 30th June 2020.
11. As per Para VII (1) of Schedule IV to the CA-13, Independent Directors (IDs) are required to hold at least one meeting without the attendance of Non-independent directors and members of management. For the financial year 2019-20, if the IDs of a company have not been able to hold such a meeting, the same shall not be viewed as a violation. The IDs, however, may share their views amongst themselves through telephone or e-mail or any other mode of communication, if they deem it to be necessary.

Special Measures under SEBI for Listed Companies

Relaxations from compliance with certain provisions of the SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015 (LODR) and the SEBI circular dated January 22, 2020 relating to Standard Operating Procedure due to the CoVID -19 virus pandemic.

Special Measures under GST (Goods & Service Tax)

1. The Companies having aggregate annual turnover of less than Rs. 5 Crore, may file their GSTR-3B of gst return for the month of March, April and May 2020 by the last week of June, 2020 and no interest, late fee, and penalty will be levied.
2. The Companies having turnover more than 5 crores can file the GST returns due in March, April and May, 2020 by last week of June, 2020 but the same would attract reduced rate of interest @9% per annum from 15 days after due date (current interest rate is 18% per annum). No late fee and penalty to be charged, if complied before till June 30, 2020.
3. Date for filing GST annual returns of FY 2018-2019, which is due on 31st March, 2020 is extended till the last week of June 2020.
4. Date for opting for composition scheme is extended till the last week of June, 2020. Further, the last date for making payments for the quarter ending March 31, 2020 and filing of return for 2019-20 by the composition dealers will be extended till the last week of June, 2020.
5. Due date for issue of notice, notification, approval order, sanction order, filing of appeal, furnishing of return, statements, applications, reports, any other documents, time limit for any compliance under the GST laws where the time limit is expiring between 20th March 2020 to 29th June 2020 shall be extended to 30th June 2020.
6. Necessary legal circulars and legislative amendments to give effect to the aforesaid GST relief shall follow with the approval of GST Council.

Special Measures under Income Tax

1. For Financial year 2018-19, last date for Filing Income Tax returns extended to June 30, 2020. For delayed payments made till June 30, interest rate reduced to 9% from 12%.
2. For delayed deposit of TDS, interest has been reduced to 9 % from 18%
3. Aadhaar-pan linking extended to June 30 from March 31
4. Vivaad se Vishwaas scheme extended to June 30. And no additional payment of 10% to be paid.
5. All compliances under Income Tax Act, Wealth Tax Act, Benami Transaction Act, Black Money Act , Vivaad se Vishwaas, have been extended to June 30, 2020.
6. The government has announced that taxpayers have time until June 30, 2020 to complete their tax-saving exercise for FY2019-20. The earlier deadline was March 31, 2020.

Special Measures under Customs

Sabka Vishwaas scheme for indirect taxes having last date till March 31 has been extended to June 30,2020. No interest to be levied.

Customs clearance till June 30 to work 24×7.

Special Measures under Banking Services:
1. Debit card holders who withdraw cash from any bank ATM can do it free of any charge for next three months. The measure has been taken to ease the burden on customers who need urgent cash and avoid overcrowding of bank branches.

2. There will be no charges on not keeping the minimum balance requirement. Country’s largest lender State Bank of India had already waived the requirement of holding a minimum balance in savings account.3. Reduced digital charges for trade transactions.

Special Measures under Banking Services

• The Reserve Bank of India has also joined the big fight today with series of steps to mitigate Covid-19.
• These measures come just hours after Moody’s Investors Service cut India’s growth forecasts for 2020 calendar year to 2.5% from 5.3%.
• The MPC decided by 4-2 majority to reduce repo rate by 75 basis points to 4.4 per cent.
  The reverse repo rate was cut by 90 bps to 4 per cent, creating an asymmetrical corridor.
• A moratorium of three months of EMIs on all outstanding loans was announced.” All commercial, regional, rural, NBFCs and small finance banks are being permitted to allow 3-month moratorium on payment of instalments in respect of all term loan EMIs outstanding on March 31”
• For the next three months, no EMI would be deducted from the account of anyone who has a loan outstanding. And all this without any hit on credit score. EMIs will resume after the moratorium period gets over.
• This is going to be a huge relief for all EMI payers, especially for those — such as the self-employed — whose income had become uncertain in the wake of the lockdown.
• The 3-month moratorium will apply to corporate loans, home loans and car loans. Personal loans will also be covered.

Special Measures under IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) Services

• The Indian IPR Office has extended the date for completion of various acts, filing of replies, payment of fees, among others, for submission of applications for patent, design and trademarks which are falling during the lockdown period.
• Extension of time, relating to submission of document in time in prevailing conditions, has been granted by the Registrar. Accordingly the applicant can file request for extension of time (now or after situation becomes normal) and such request will be considerd by the Registrar in accordance to law.
• All hearings relating to trademarks matters scheduled between 17/03/2020 to 15/04/2020 have been adjourned and these cases will be rescheduled in due course of time, as the situation gets normal.