Income Tax
- CBDT vide Circular No.1/2020, dated 03.01.2020 relaxed the time limit for filing of application for compounding of offence till date 31.01.2020.
- CBDT vide Circular No. 2/2020 & 3/2020 , dated 03.01.2020 authorised Commissioner of Income tax to admit the application for condoned the delay in filing of Form 10B/10/9A for AY 2018-19 and for subsequent years if delay is upto 365 days.
| CBDT vide Notification No. 1/2020(F. NO. 370142/32/2019-TPL)] DATED 3-1-2020 amended the Rule 12 and substituted the ITR 1 & ITR 4 with New ITR 1 & ITR 4. |
- CBDT vide Circular No.4/2020, dated 16.01.2020 relaxed the time limit for filing of application for compounding of offence till date 31.01.2020.
International Taxation
- CBDT vide Notification dated 03/2020 dated 06.01.2020 amended the rules related with the Master File (Rule 10DA read with section 92D) & CBCR (Rule 10DB read with Rule 286) which will take effect from which will get effected from 01.04.2020.
Goods & Services Tax (GST)
- CBIC vide Notification No.28/2019-Central Tax (Rate) dated 30th December, 2019 has exempted the upfront amount payable for long term lease of industrial/ financial infrastructure plots by an entity having 20% or more ownership of Central or State Government. Earlier the exemption was available to an entity having 50% or more ownership of Central or State Government.
- CBIC vide Notification No. 27 /2019- Central Tax (Rate) dated 30th Dec, 2019 has raised GST rate on Woven and Non-Woven Bags and sacks of polyethylene or polypropylene strips or the like , whether or not laminated, of a kind used for packing of goods (HS code 3923/6305), and all such bags falling under HS 3923/6305 including Flexible Intermediate Bulk Containers (FIBC) to a uniform rate of 18%(from 12%).
- CBIC vide Notification No. 02/2020 – Central Tax dated 01st January, 2020 has extended the due date for submitting the declaration electronically in Form TRAN-1 by a further period not beyond 31st March, 2020 and statement in Form TRAN-2 by 30th April,2020 in case of registered persons who could not submit the said declaration by the due date on account of technical difficulties on the common portal and in respect of whom the Council has made a recommendation for such extension. Commissioner has been given power in his behalf on recommendation of council.
- CBIC has made Changes to Form GSTR- 3A, Serial No. 2 as -“You are, therefore, requested to furnish the said return within 15 days failing which the tax liability may be will be assessed u/s 62 of the Act, based on the relevant material available with this office.” And Serial number 5 inserted as – “This is a system generated notice and does not require signature.”
- CBIC vide Notification No. 03/2020 – Central Tax dated 1st January, 2020 has given an option to the taxpayer to transfer the input tax credit (ITC) from the registered GSTIN, till the 31st December, 2019 in the State of Jammu and Kashmir, to the new GSTIN in the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir or in the Union territory of Ladakh from the 1st January, 2020. The balance of State taxes in electronic credit ledger of the said class of persons, whose principal place of business lies in the Union territory of Ladakh from the 1st January, 2020, shall be transferred as balance of Union territory tax in the electronic credit ledger.
- CBIC has reallocated the New GSTIN to Taxpayers of Union Territory of Ladakh. New GSTINs are reallocated to active existing taxpayers registered under J & K State earlier with State code – 01, having Principal Place of Business in the jurisdiction of Union territory of Ladakh, now with UT code “38”.
- The Finance Ministry on 22nd January,2020 has declared that now GST taxpayers can file their GSTR-3B returnsin a staggered manner as follows, official notification for the same is to yet to be issued:
New Due Dates of Form GSTR -3B (Based on State and Turnover Criteria) based on press release dated 22-01-2020
| State / UT where Taxpayer is Registered | Turnover | Due Date | |
| Existing | Proposed | ||
| Any State in India including Union Territories | Taxpayers having annual turnover of Rs 5 crore and above in the previous financial Year | 20th of the next month | 20th of the next month without late fees |
| Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Daman and Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Goa, Lakshadweep, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. | Taxpayer having annual turnover below Rs 5 crore in previous financial year | 20th of the next month | 22nd of the next month without late fees |
| Jammu and Kashmir, Laddakh, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Chandigarh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Meghalaya, Assam, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Odisha. | 20th of the next month | 24th of the next month without late fees | |
Companies Act, 2013
- STAKEHOLDERS MAY PLEASE NOTE THAT AS PART OF GOVERNMENT OF INDIA’S EASE OF DOING BUSINESS (EODB) INITIATIVES, THE MINISTRY OF CORPORATE AFFAIRS WOULD BE SHORTLY NOTIFYING & DEPLOYING A NEW WEB FORM CHRISTENED ‘SPICE+’ (PRONOUNCED ‘SPICE PLUS’) REPLACING THE EXISTING SPICE FORM.
SPICe+ would be an integrated Web form offering multiple services viz. name reservation, incorporation, DIN allotment, mandatory issue of PAN, TAN, EPFO, ESIC, Profession Tax (Maharashtra) and Opening of Bank Account. It will also facilitate allotment of GSTIN wherever so applied for by the Stakeholders. After deployment of SPICe+ web form, RUN shall be applicable only for change of name of existing companies. Upon notification & deployment, all new name reservations for new companies as well as new incorporations shall be applied through SPICe+ only. However, incorporation of companies for names reserved through the existing RUN service shall continue to be filed in the existing SPICe eform along with related linked forms as applicable and if marked under resubmission shall be resubmitted in SPICe eform. Due to the proposed changes to the RUN web service (for companies), RESUBMISSION OPTION for name reservation SHALL NOT BE AVAILABLE for forms processed by CRC from 1st Feb 2020 ONWARDS for approximately 15 days. Hence, stakeholders are advised to EITHER AWAIT DEPLOYMENT OF SPICe+ AND THEN APPLY FOR NAMES through SPICe+ web form or perform due diligence while submitting any application in existing RUN web service for name reservation. RUN applications (for companies) processed w.e.f 1st February 2020 onwards shall either be approved or rejected based on checks performed by CRC officers. Stakeholders may kindly note and plan accordingly.
On the basis of the representations received the matter has been examined and it is hereby informed that the time limit for filing e-form No. BEN-2 is extended upto 31st March, 2020 without payment of additional fee and thereafter fee and additional fee shall be payable. Consequent to the extension in the date of filing of e-Form BEN-2, the date of filing of Form BEN-1 may be construed accordingly.
- Companies (Appointment and Remuneration of Managerial Personnel) Amendment Rules, 2020.
- Date of Notification– January 3, 2020
- Applicability– The amended rules shall be applicable in respect of Financial Years commencing on and from April 1st, 2020.
- The amendment has substituted the rule by providing that every private company which has a paid-up share capital of INR 10 Crore or more shall have a whole-time Company Secretary.
Post amendment the following companies are mandatorily required to appoint a whole-time Company Secretary:
- Listed Company,
- Every Company having paid-up share capital of INR 10 Crore or more.
Rule 9 – Secretarial Audit Report
Pursuant to Section 204, every listed company and companies belonging to such other class shall annex a Secretarial Audit Report, given by a Practicing Company Secretary, with its Board Report. Such other class of company which are required to comply with this provision are given in Rule 9 of the Rules.
Prior amendment, such class of companies were: –
(a) Every public company having a paid-up share capital of fifty crore rupees or more, or
(b) Every public company having a turnover of two hundred fifty crore rupees or more;
Post amendment, one more class of companies has been added in Rule 9. The new class of companies is every company having outstanding loans or borrowings from banks or public financial institutions of one hundred crore rupees or more.
Post amendment the following companies are mandatorily required to conduct a Secretarial Audit:
(a) Every public company having a paid-up share capital of fifty crore rupees or more; or
(b) Every public company having a turnover of two hundred fifty crore rupees or more; or
(c) Every company having outstanding loans or borrowings from banks or public financial institutions of one hundred crore rupees or more.
Other Laws
SEBI
The regulator also restrained Investment Advisers (IA) from providing a free trial for any product and service. The IAs shall not provide a free trial for any products/services to prospective clients. Further, IAs shall not accept part payments (where some part of the fee is paid in advance) for any product or service. To bring transparency in dealing with the clients, SEBI has asked IAs to accept fees through banking channels only. It has clarified that IAs shall not accept cash deposits. To enable the investors to make informed decisions regarding availing of advisory services, IAs have been asked to display information with regard to the number of complaints received as well as resolved during the month on the homepage of their website. Also, they need to display information pertaining to the number of grievances pending and reasons for such pendency during the month. The information should be displayed using proper font size and should be made available on a monthly basis within 7 days of the end of the previous month.
These regulations shall be applicable to the draft letter of offer, letter of offer and abridged letter of offer filed on or after the date of coming into force of these regulations. Accordingly, in the letter of offer and the abridged letter of offer, the issuer shall disclose the process of credit of rights entitlements in the Demat account and renunciation thereof. Further, the ASBA facility shall also be provided by the issuer to the applicant to the rights issue and payment through any other electronic banking mode shall be permitted in respect of an application made for any reserved portion outside the issue period. Furthermore, the rights entitlements shall be credited to the Demat account of the shareholders before the date of opening of the issue and Allotment of specified securities shall be made in the dematerialized form only.
