Govt extends tax deadlines, waives ATM charges, relaxes insolvency norm ahead of eco stimulus

The government on Tuesday extended the deadline for filing income tax and GST returns, raised threshold of default that could trigger insolvency of a company and waived charges on cash withdrawals from ATM of other banks as a precursor to a broader stimulus package for the economy distressed by the coronavirus outbreak.

The last date for filing income tax returns for 2018-19 as well as that for linking PAN with biometric ID Aadhaar has been extended by three months to June 30. The last date for filing GST annual returns for last fiscal, which is due on March 31, has also been extended till the last week of June.

As the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdowns across cities create large scale economic disruption, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that the threshold of loan default that could trigger insolvency proceedings has been raised to Rs 1 crore from the existing Rs 1 lakh now.

"This will by and large prevent triggering of insolvency proceedings against small, micro and medium enterprises (MSMEs)," she said at a news conference. "If the current situation continues beyond April 30, 2020, we may consider suspending Section 7, 9 and 10 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) 2016 for a period of 6 months so as to stop companies at large from being forced into insolvency proceedings in such force majeure causes of default."
"The work of the task force which is multi-layered is already almost intensively nearing a conclusion. So, the task force based report and the action following the task force's report are almost at its peak. And that is why I have said, we will announce the economic package sooner rather than later."