The COVID-19 outbreak has forced us all to stop, think, and re-plan our daily lives. This also includes our finances. The Union Finance & Corporate Affairs Minister Smt. Niramala Sitharaman announced many important steps that have been taken by the Government of India in view of COVID-19 outbreak. These announcements were primarily in the areas of Income Tax, GST, Corporate Affairs, Customs & Central Excise, Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code(IBC) Fisheries, Commerce, and Banking Sector.

We thought of sharing the most important highlights that maybe relevant for our readers:

1. Economic package for affected sectors 

The Coronavirus outbreak is bound to affect several sectors. The Finance Ministry is very close to forming an economic package for helping the sectors most severely hit by coronavirus pandemic.

What it means for you ? 

If you own a business/service in the travel, tourism, or hotel sector then you belong to the worst-affected sectors due to the social distancing & lockdowns. Related sectors such as electricity, fuel minerals, plastic, coke & petroleum products are also affected. Retail shop owners selling apparels, home furnishings and such are also affected. The Finance Ministry is going to help such businesses with an economic package to deal with the coronavirus outbreak.

For more details on this, here is the official press release: https://bit.ly/2WIXGSU

2. Three months relaxations for financial services 

1. Debit cardholders will be allowed to take out cash for free from any other banks’ ATM for 3 months
2. Fee on not maintaining min. balance in account has been waived off
3. Bank charges for digital trade transactions for all trade finance consumers have been reduced

3. Income tax related 

1. Date of filing income tax has been shifted to 30th June 2020
2. Date of linking Aadhar-PAN card has been extended till 30th June 2020
3. Interest rate on delayed deposit of TDS sliced to 9% from 18%.
4. Submission of returns documents date extended till 30th June.
5. Vivaad Se Vishvas Scheme extended till 30th June

What is the Vivaad Se Vishwas Scheme?

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has introduced a Bill for resolving the direct tax disputes raised by tax savers. This Bill offers a waiver of penalty, interest and prosecution for settlement of the disputed by March 31. However, this has now been extended till 30th June.

If you need more detailed information on this, you can read the official press release here: https://bit.ly/2WIXGSU

Twitter highlights by the Ministry of Finance:

Following are the highlights of a slew of relief measures related to statutory and regulatory compliance matters across sectors in view of #COVID19 outbreak announced by Finance Minister Smt.@nsitharaman on Tuesday.#IndiaFightsCorona

For more details: https://t.co/dkKRT4tk8z pic.twitter.com/WDXtyVe6CE

— Ministry of Finance (@FinMinIndia) March 25, 2020