Income Tax
- TDS-CPC issued notification that online application for Lower/NIL tax deduction can be file 28th February of the preceding financial year and can be filed upto 15th March of same financial year.
| CBDT vide Notification dated 29th January 2020, new rule 6ABBA has been inserted to include to new prescribed electronic method as introduced by Circular No.32/2019 to sync with the circular/notification.
CBDT vide Notification No. 11/2020 dated 7th February 2020, has notify new Common application form (CAF) for the purposes of registration, opening of bank and DEMAT accounts and application for Permanent Account No. (PAN) for the Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) in India by the Ministry of Finance, Department of Economic Affairs (SEBI) vide notification F no.4/15/2016-ECB dated 27th January 2020. Ø CBDT vide Notification No. 11/2020 dated 12th February 2020, has notify rules and forms to avail the benefit of lower Corporate tax rates of 15%/22%. New Forms are Form 10IC & 10ID which are required to be file before filing of ITR. |
- CBDT vide Notification dated 13th February 2020, intimated that if Aadhar No. is not linked/intimated then PAN becomes inoperative and deemed that PAN is never furnished wherever required and consequent action will be taken.
- CBDT vide Circular No.06/2020 dated 19.02.2020, further relaxed the condonation of delay in filing of Income Tax Return/Form 9A/10 of charitable institution for AY 2016-17, 2017-18, 2018-19.
- CBDT also open facility of E-Calculator on their website to compare the tax in alternative new tax regime vs. old tax regime.
International Taxation
- CBDT clarify that Indian non-resident will not taxed twice until they derived income from an Indian sources.
- CBDT has approved the signing and ratification of the Protocol amending India-Sri Lanka DTAA. Updation of preamble text and inclusion of Principal Purpose Test, a general anti abuse provision in the DTAA will result in curbing of tax planning strategies which exploit gaps and mismatches in tax rules. Amendment done in DTAA not in MLI as Sri Lanka is not a signatory of MLI.
- Vide DOR Notification G.S.R. 84(E) dated 04th February, 2020 [F. No. S-31011/01/2012-SO (ST-1)(Pt.-8)] Ministry of Finance has declared the GST Database and its associated infrastructure dependencies installed at GSTN, as the protected system under Section 70(1) of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
- CBIC vide various tweets, has clarified the issue relating to Interest payable on Delayed Tax payments stating that the GST laws (sec. 50(1)), as of now, permit interest calculation on delayed GST payment on the basis of gross tax liability. This position has been upheld in the Telangana High Court’s decision dated 18.04.2019. Such amendment will be made prospectively from a date yet to be notified.
- CBIC vide Order-01/2020-GST dated 07th February 2020 extended the time limit for submitting the declaration in Form GST Tran-1 under rule 117(1A) of the CGST Rules, 2017 for the class of persons who could not file their form GST TRAN 1 by due date on account of technical difficulties on the common portal and whose cases have been recommended by the council till 31st March, 2020.
- CBIC vide Notification No. 07/2020 – Central Tax dated 3rd February 2020, extended the due date of filling of GSTR-3B in staggered manner for different taxpayers basis upon turnover and State/UT of registered place. Under the amendment the last date for filing of GSTR-3B for the taxpayers having annual turnover of Rs 5 crore and above in the previous financial year would be 20th of the month, The taxpayers having annual turnover below Rs 5 crore in previous financial year are divided further in two categories-
The tax filers from 15 States/ UTs, i.e., States of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Goa, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana or Andhra Pradesh or the Union territories of Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Puducherry, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep will now be having the last date of filing GSTR-3B returns for the month of January, February and March, 2020 as 22nd of following month.
For the remaining taxpayers whose principal place of business is in the States of Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Meghalaya, Assam, West Bengal, Jharkhand or Odisha or the Union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Chandigarh and Delhi will now be having last date of filing the GSTR-3B for the month of January, February and March, 2020 as 24th of the following month without late fees.
- E-Way Bill system is now integrated with Vaahan system of Transport Department. Vehicle (RC) number entered in e-waybill will be verified with Vaahan data for its existence/correctness. If the vehicle number does not exist, then system will alert the user to check and correct, if required. If the vehicle (RC) number is correct as per the tax payer, then he can continue with generation of E-Way Bill. However, he needs to get the vehicle number updated in the Vaahan database so that in future E-Way Bill generation will not be affected.
Companies Act, 2013
MCA
Accordingly, for Reservation of name or change of name, an application shall be made through the web service by using web service SPICe+ (Simplified Proforma for Incorporating Company Electronically Plus: INC-32), and for change of name by using web service RUN (Reserve Unique Name) along with fee as provided in the Companies (Registration Offices and Fees) Rules, 2014, which may either be approved or rejected, as the case may be, by the Registrar, Central Registration Centre after allowing re-submission of such web form within fifteen days for rectification of the defects, if any, with effect from the 23rd February, 2020. Now the Form AGILE-PRO (Application for Goods and Services Tax Identification Number, Employees State Insurance Corporation Registration plus Employees Provident Fund Organization Registration, Profession Tax Registration and Opening of Bank Account) can be filed for Incorporation of a Company.
Through this amendment, MCA has released revised Form No. GNL-2. As the Companies can file certain documents with the Registrar of Companies by filing this e-Form GNL-2 and in case there is no e- Form prescribed for filing any document with Registrar, then company or liquidator can file such documents through this e-Form.
MCA has specified the requirement of filing Form INC-28 by Interim Resolution Professional/Resolution Professional/ Liquidator, as appointed by Hon’ble Bench of NCLT/ NCLAT, after the admission of the petition filed under Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016. Before the initiation of Form INC-28, most of the corporates under CIRP had to face the issue of filing the relevant e-forms on the MCA portal, since the power of the Board of Directors get suspended, once the CIRP process is initiated against the company. As per the Circular, the Insolvency Professional is required to attach the order copy of NCLT/NCLAT in Form INC-28, which after verification from ROC, the same will get approved and Insolvency Professional will be allowed, to file the e-forms of the Company (under CIRP) by affixing his DSC. Once the form INC-28 is approved by the respective ROC, the name of Insolvency Professional will be reflected as ‘Chief Executive Officer’ under the Authorized Signatory details of the Company. The status of the Company will be shown as under CIRP or Liquidation, based on the filing of the e-form. On completion of the insolvency process or after getting stay order, the Insolvency Professional is required to file e-form INC-28 once again, to change the status of the Company on the MCA portal.
Through this amendment, Rule 23A has been amended to extend the time limit of declaring a Public Company as Nidhi Company within 9 months. As per the new amendment, a public company shall declare it as Nidhi and every Nidhi incorporated under the Act shall get itself declared within a period of 1 year from the date of its incorporation or within a period of 9 months from the date of commencement of Nidhi (Amendment) Rules, 2019, whichever is later. The period was initially 6 months from commencement of Nidhi rules which is hereby extended for another 3 months.
MCA has notified the Nidhi (Amendment) Rules, 2020 which shall come into force on 10thFebruary, 2020.
Amendments are made to substitute new Form NDH-1, NDH-2 & NDH-3 in place of the existing forms. The FORM NO. NDH-I is for Return of Statutory Compliances [Pursuant to section 406 of the Companies Act, 2073 and pursuant to sub rule (2) of rule 5 of the Nidhi Rules, 2014. The FORM NO. NDH-2 is for Application for extension of time [Pursuant to sub-rule (3) of rules of Nidhi Rule 6., 2014] and FORM NO. NDH-3 is for Return of Nidhi Company for the half year ended [Pursuant rule 27 of the Nidhi Rules 2014].
Amendments are carried out to insert a new proviso in Rule 7 has been inserted which states that the proceeds of the issue of depositories receipts maybe remitted in an IFSC banking unit and utilized in accordance with the instructions issued by the RBI on time to time. Further, the depository receipts can be issued by way of a public offering or private placement or in any other manner prevalent in the concerned jurisdiction and may be listed or traded on the listing or trading platform in the concerned jurisdiction.
New Rule 12(1A) has been inserted to cover every Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC) that is required to comply with Indian Accounting Standards (Ind AS) shall file the financial statements with Registrar together with Form AOC-4 NBFC (Ind AS) and the consolidated financial statement, if any, with Form AOC-4 CFS NBFC (Ind AS). Accordingly, MCA has provided Relaxation of additional fees and extension of the last date of filing of Forms AoC-4 NBFC (Ind AS) and AoC-4 CFS NBFC (Ind AS) for FY 2018-19 under the Companies Act, 2013. It is hereby informed that the two new eform namely AoC-4 NBFC (Ind AS) and AoC- 4 CFS NBFC (Ind AS) are likely to be deployed on 31st January, 2020 and 17th February, 2020 respectively. In view of the same, it has been decided to extend the last date for filing of AoC-4 NBFC (Ind AS) and AoC-4 CFS NBFC (Ind AS) for all eligible companies for the FY 2018-19, without payment of additional fee till 31st March, 2020.
Section 460 of the Companies Act, 2013 deals with the Condonation of delay in certain cases, provided that Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, (a) where any application required to be made to the Central Government under any provision of this Act in respect of any matter is not made within the time specified therein, that Government may, for reasons to be recorded in writing, condone the delay; and (b) where any document required to be filed with the Registrar under any provision of this Act is not filed within the time specified therein, the Central Government may, for reasons to be recorded in writing, condone the delay. The same provision is now made applicable to LLP for Condonation of delay.
On the basis of the requests received from various stakeholders stating that due to disturbances in internet services and the normal work was affected in the UT of J &K and UT of Ladakh and sought extension of time for filing of financial statements for the financial year ended 31.03.2019. Therefore, it has been decided to further extend the due date for filing of e-forms AOC-4, AOC-4 (CFS) AOC4 XBRL and e-form MGT-7 up to 31.03.2020, for companies having the jurisdiction in the UT of J&K and UT of Ladakh without levy of additional fee.
MCA had notified the Companies (Compromises, Arrangements and Amalgamations) Amendment Rules, 2020, shall come into force on the date of their publication in the Official Gazette i.e 03-02-2020.
The amendment includes a provision for majority shareholders to buy out minority stockholders. Accordingly, A member of the company shall make an application for arrangement, for the purpose of takeover offer in terms of sub-section (11) of section 230, when such member along with any other member holds not less than three-fourths of the shares in the company, and such application has been filed for acquiring any part of the remaining shares of the company. The notification by the ministry said that for such an application of takeover, the applicant will have to submit the report of a registered valuer disclosing the details of the valuation of the shares proposed to be acquired by the member. Additionally, the amendment prescribes that the whole process has to be carried out under the scheme of arrangement mechanism.
New Rule 80A according to which an application in Form NCLT-1 shall be filed before the tribunal by an aggrieved party in the event of any grievances with respect to the takeover offer of companies other than listed companies in such manner as may be prescribed and the Tribunal may, on application, pass such order as it may deem fit. The Application fees in case of takeover offer of companies which are not listed shall be Rs.5000. The list of documents to be attached with the above application shall include an Affidavit verifying the petition, Memorandum of appearance with copy of the Board’s Resolution or the executed Vakalatnama, as the case may be, Documents in support of the grievance against the takeover.
Accordingly, the e-forms shall be available on the MCA-21 portal on 11th February, 2020. Stakeholders are also advised to please note that any such Nidhi forms filed on or after 11th February, 2020 as attachments to GNL-2 e-form and RD-1 e-form shall not be processed by ROCs and RDs and shall be rejected accordingly. Stakeholders are advised to note and plan accordingly.
The Companies (Winding Up) Rules 2020 provides rules for Winding up by Tribunal; Liquidators; Winding up Order; Application for stay of suits etc. on winding up order; Report by Company Liquidator under section 281; Settlement of list of contributors; Advisory Committee; Meetings of Creditors and Contributories; Proxies in relation to meetings of creditors and contributories; Registration and Books of Account to be Maintained by Company Liquidators; Banking Account of Company Liquidator; Investment of Surplus Funds; Filing and Audit of Company Liquidator’s Account; Winding up by Tribunal (other than summary winding up) Debts and Claims against Company; Attendance and Appearance of Creditors and Contributories; Collection and Distribution of Assets in Winding up by Tribunal; Calls in Winding up by Tribunal; Examination under Section 299 and 300; Application against Delinquent Directors, Promoters and Officers of the Company; Compromise or Abandonment of Claims; Sale by Company Liquidator; Dividends and Returns of Capital in Winding up by Tribunal; Termination of Winding up; Payment of Unclaimed Dividends or Distribution of Assets and Summary Procedure for Liquidation.
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 reservations. 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.
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. The new 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 the allotment of GSTIN wherever so applied for by the Stakeholders. After deployment of SPICe+ web form, RUN shall be applicable only for the change of name of existing companies. Further, 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. Resubmission of SPICe forms submitted prior to the date of deployment of SPICe+ web form shall also be filed in the existing SPICe eform and related linked forms as applicable.
MCA notifies Companies (Auditor’s Report) Order 2020. Read Key Changes / Highlights CARO 2020 – Companies (Auditor’s Report) Order, 2020
MCA in place of existing the Companies (Auditor’s Report) Order, 2016, has notified CARO 2020 after consultation with the National Financial Reporting Authority constituted under section 132 of the Companies Act, 2013.
Other Laws
Employees’ State Insurance
The ESIC had received several representations from employers regarding the demand of records beyond five years period by ESIC officials for conducting a test inspection / inspection. Hence, through the circular ESIC clarifies that the Authorized Officers is not permitted to ask for any records, relating to the contributions made by the employer to the ESIC before five years, from the employers while conducting test inspection/inspection. The time limit of five years must be strictly followed in determining the contributions and issue of speaking orders by the authorized officers. It is reasoned that since contribution cannot be determined for the period beyond five years, the Social Security Officer cannot ask for any records beyond 5 years from the employer for inspection.
The draft regulations will be taken into consideration after expiry of a period of Thirty days from the date on which the Official Gazette. The Amendment proposed are paving way for appointment of a local committee with representatives of Centre, state government, employers, and employees in each notified district under the existing regional board to facilitate the devolution of powers at the grass root level for better implementation of the scheme. The ESI scheme is applicable to all factories and other establishments as defined in the Act with 10 or more persons employed in such establishment and the beneficiaries’ monthly wage does not exceed Rs 21,000 are covered under the scheme. Amendments are proposed in the clause dealing with the Notice of Commissioning Mother, Declaration by Insured Women of her surviving child or children, Claim for Maternity Benefit by Commissioning Mother, Claim for Maternity Benefit by Adoptive Mother and Form No. 17 and Form No. 19 are revised.
SEBI
The SEBI has notified the new norms & Guidelines governing Portfolio Managers and their services.
The SEBI has mandated that portfolio managers cannot charge an upfront fee, either directly or indirectly, from clients and the only brokerage at actuals should be charged to clients as an expense. Further, Operating expenses excluding brokerage, over and above the fees charged for Portfolio Management Service, shall not exceed 0.50 percent per annum of the client’s average daily Assets under Management (AUM). For redemption of client portfolio in the first three years of investment, an exit load charge ranging from 1-3 percent would be charged. After the three-year period, there would be no exit load. Charges for all transactions in a financial year through self or associates would be capped at 20 percent by value per associate per service. The regulator noted that portfolio managers should provide an option for clients to be on-boarded directly, without the intermediation of persons engaged in distribution services. Further, the Portfolio managers would be required to provide a certificate from a qualified chartered accountant certifying net worth as on March 31, on the basis of audited accounts. This has to be done within six months from the end of a financial year. The provisions of the circular would come into effect from May 1.
SEBI Introduces New System to Detect Broker Misuse of Client Securities.
An online register will record brokers’ holdings of client securities, clubbing all such information collected by exchanges, depositories and clearing corporations for all types of trades. In the recent past, SEBI has observed that some brokers have misused clients’ securities received as collateral to meet their own settlement obligation or obligations of other clients. SEBI collects the details of the clients’ securities submitted in the weekly report filed by brokers with the exchanges and updates the same with trades conducted in the accounts of said clients using the data available with SEBI in DWBIS as well as data provided by exchanges, clearing corporations and depositories pertaining to auction trades, corporate actions, SLBM transfers, off-market trades etc.. The securities holding balance computed is matched with actual clients’ securities holding in the Demat account and the submission made by the broker for the next day. If there is any mismatch in data, it is flagged as an alert for exchanges. These reports are being generated by SEBI on a weekly basis and three such mismatch reports have already been forwarded to Exchanges for reconciliation with members.
The SEBI has proposed that an association of AIFs with representation from at least 51 percent of the industry selects one or more benchmarking agencies. The agreement between the benchmarking agencies and the AIFs should cover the mode and manner of data reporting, specific data that needs to be reported, and terms of confidentiality. Benchmarking will apply to all schemes that have completed at least one year from the date of ‘First Close’. Funds incorporated overseas with India track record shall also provide the data to the agencies when they seek registration as AIFs. Performance benchmarking shall be done on a half-yearly basis based on data as on September 30 and March 31 of each year. The performance and benchmark reports are to be made available latest by July 1, 2020, for the performance up to September 30, 2019. Further, the SEBI has also introduced a template for private placement memorandum (PPM) to ensure minimum disclosure in a simple and comparable format.
Accordingly, as per Regulation 42(2) of LODR, the period of Advance Notice to Stock Exchange has been reduced to 7 workings days to 3 workings days as per Regulation 84(1) of ICDR, Issuance of a newspaper advertisement for disclosing the date of completion of dispatch and for intimation of the same to the stock exchange for dissemination on their website is now required to be completed by the Issuer at least 2 days before the opening of the Issue. Further, in the letter of offer or abridge letter of offer, the Issuer shall disclose the process of the credit of Right Entitlements (RE) in the Demat account and renunciation. The REs with a separate ISIN shall be credited to the Demat account of the shareholders before the opening of the issue, against the shares held by them on the record date.
SEBI pursuant to the amendments to Listing Regulations and in order to streamline the Standard Operating Procedure for dealing with non-compliance, the present circular has been issued suppressing the earlier circulars. Therefore, the stock exchanges shall, having regard to the interests of investors and the securities market shall take action by imposing a fine or any other act for non-compliance in respect of listed entities. The fine amount for violation of various provision has been listed out in the Annexure I and Annexure-II provides the standard operating procedure for suspension and revocation of trading of specified securities, of the circular. The Concerned recognized stock exchange shall display on their website non – compliance by the listed entity and details of fine levied/ action taken and the fines imposed shall continue to accrue till the time of rectification of the non-compliance to the satisfaction of the concerned recognized stock exchange. Further, the stock exchanges shall follow the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for suspension and revocation of suspension of trading of specified securities.
IBBI
As the Regulations require the Insolvency Professionals (IP) to file a set of forms, namely, IP1, CIRP1, CIRP2, CIRP3, CIRP4, CIRP5, and CIRP6 covering the life cycle of a CIRP along with the enclosures thereto, on an electronic platform of the Board within the prescribed time. The filing of a Form under this regulation after the due date of submission, whether by correction, updating or otherwise, shall be accompanied by a fee of five hundred rupees per Form for each calendar month of delay after 1st January, 2020. Through this Amendment, IBBI has extended the last date of submission of delayed forms with fees from 01-01-2020 to 01-04-2020.
DGFT
Further, to respond to the verification requests by EU within the prescribed time limit, failing which the Registered Exporter Number (REX) may be annulled. Furthermore, issued FAQs in this regard to clarify the various issues pertaining to the same. It has been clarified, that there is no difference in tariff or customs preferences if the wholly obtained (WO) criteria are used instead of the product-specific rule (PSR). Further, the WO criteria under Article 44 of EU regulation 2446/2015 should be used when all the inputs namely raw materials and intermediates used in the export product are originating in India. In case, there is a doubt on the origin of any input, used in the export product the WO criteria must not be used. It has been clarified, that the “Statement on Origin” can be issued retrospectively from the date of application for registration of an exporter, For example, if an exporter made an online application for registration on 1 April but the REX number was issued only on 15 April; he can use the REX number allotted to him for issuance of “Statement on Origin” for exports made from 1 April onwards.
RBI
The RBI has come up with some changes in operational guidelines for the captioned scheme contained in circular on ‘Interest Subvention Scheme for MSMEs‘.
Under the changes, it has been allowed to submit statutory auditor certificate by June 30, 2020 and in the meantime, to settle claims based on internal/concurrent auditor certificate. Acceptance of claims in multiple lots for a given half-year by eligible institutions has been allowed. Unit not required to obtain GST, may either submit Income Tax Permanent Account Number (PAN) or their loan account must be categorized as MSME by the concerned bank. RBI has also allowed trading activities also without Udyog Aadhar Number (UAN). Further, with the trading activity also eligible for interest subvention, the ‘Format of Certificate for claiming Subsidy’ has been revised. Banks are advised to submit claims to SIDBI as per the revised format.
FPIs are allowed to invest in various debt market instruments such as government bonds, treasury bills, state development loans and corporate bonds, but within certain limits and restrictions. The Reserve bank increased the FPIs cap on investment in government securities and corporate bonds to 30% outstanding stock of that security, from 20% earlier. FPIs were allowed to invest in government and corporate bonds with a minimum residual maturity of three years. FPI investments in Security Receipts are currently exempted from the short-term investment limit These exemptions are extended to FPI investments in Debt instruments issued by Asset Reconstruction Companies; and Debt instruments issued by an entity under the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process as per the resolution plan approved by the National Company Law Tribunal under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016.
IPR – Trademark
The Trade Mark Registry took into notice that the documents submitted at the counter of the Trade Marks Registry, Mumbai were not classified properly due to which the documents were not get scanned and digitized as required and also not able to properly distributed in the respective sections for necessary action. Accordingly, the guidelines have been issued for the proper submission of documents. Now, the documents which found not as per guidelines as below will NOT be accepted at the counter.
BSE
(Tab 3 and 4) under BSE Listing Centre as a one-time exercise and should be updated as and when there are any changes. All listed companies are requested to do initial verification of the information that is displayed in the ‘Corp Information’ section of BSE website. In case there are any changes / updates in Key Managerial Personnel or Registrar and Share Transfer Agent details the same may be updated in the Management Details section (Tab 1 and 2) in addition to the corporate announcement made by the Company, in respect of changes in the above, from time to time. These changes will include changes in contact details as well
