Crores of traders urge FM Nirmala Sitharaman to defer GST, income tax compliances by three months

CAIT represents around 8 crore traders across 40,000 trade associations in India.

Covid impact on MSMEs: Traders’ body Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has urged the government to defer as many as 11 compliances under Goods and Services Tax (GST) and 15 compliances under the Income Tax Act by three months in the wake of Covid crisis in the country. The confederation, which represents around 8 crore traders across 40,000 trade associations in India, requested Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in a communication to postpone these compliances that traders have to comply with in April. “Non-compliance of these stipulations will attract huge penalties on traders across the country,” CAIT said.

“In these tough times when all the state governments are taking strict precautionary measures such as complete curfew, night curfew, 72-hour lockdown, complete lockdown, containment zones, etc., in order to restrict the spread of Covid-19 in their states, it will not be possible to comply with all these statutory compliances in time,” CAIT National President BC Bhartia and Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal said in a statement.

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Returns including GSTR-3B, GSTR-1, GSTR-4, CMP-08, GSTR-5, GSTR-5A, GSTR-6, GSTR-7, and GSTR-8 have been due in April along with the due date for issue of TDS certificate for tax deducted under section 194-IA, IB, and 194M, a quarterly statement in respect of foreign remittances in form 15CC, furnishing form 3BB, form 24G, challan-cum-statement in respect of tax deducted under section 194-IA, etc., of the Income Tax Act, according to CAIT.

“For Delhi, the daily business loss due to lockdown is likely to be around Rs 600 crore while for overall India, the daily loss could be around Rs 30,000 crore taking into account full lockdown, partial lockdown, night curfews, and other forms of restrictions,” Khandelwal had told Financial Express Online earlier this week.

The government, on Saturday, had announced relief for taxpayers, tax consultants and other stakeholders, by extending the deadline for payments under the Direct Tax Vivad Se Vishwas Act, 2020 and some compliances under the Income Tax Act by two months till June 30. These included, “Time limit for passing of any order for assessment or reassessment under the Income-tax Act, 1961 the time limit for which is provided under section 153 or section 153B thereof; Time limit for passing an order consequent to direction of DRP under sub-section (13) of section 144C of the Act; Time limit for issuance of notice under section 148 of the Act for reopening the assessment where income has escaped assessment; and Time Limit for sending intimation of processing of Equalisation Levy under sub-section (1) of section 168 of the Finance Act 2016,” according to the Finance Ministry statement.

India has been witnessing a surge in Covid cases since mid-February amid the second wave of the pandemic. The country, facing a shortage of critical life-saving supplies such as medical oxygen, reported 3,49,691 new cases, 2,767 deaths, and 2,17,113 discharges in the last 24 hours, as per Union Health Ministry. India’s total number of Covid cases jumped to 1,69,60,172, while active cases surpassed the 26-lakh mark, as per the ministry’s data.