TAXATION AND OTHER LAWS (RELAXATION AND AMENDMENT OF CERTAIN PROVISIONS) ACT, 2020
[29th September, 2020]
PREAMBLE
An Act to provide for relaxation and amendment of provisions of certain Acts and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.
Be it enacted by Parliament in the Seventy-first Year of the Republic of India as follows:--
(1) This Act may be called the Taxation and Other Laws (Relaxation and Amendment of Certain Provisions) Act, 2020.
(2) Save as otherwise provided, it shall be deemed to have come into force on the 31st day of March, 2020.
(1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,--
(a) "notification" means the notification published in the Official Gazette;
(b) "specified Act" means--
(i) the Wealth-tax Act, 1957 (27 of 1957);
(ii) the Income-tax Act, 1961 (43 of 1961);
(iii) the Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act, 1988 (45 of 1988);
(iv) Chapter VII of the Finance (No. 2) Act, 2004 (22 of 2004);
(v) Chapter VII of the Finance Act, 2013 (17 of 2013);
(vi) the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015 (22 of 2015);
(vii) Chapter VIII of the Finance Act, 2016 (28 of 2016); or
(viii) the Direct Tax Vivad se Vishwas Act, 2020 (3 of 2020).
(2) The words and expressions used herein and not define
(1) Where, any time-limit has been specified in, or prescribed or notified under, the specified Act which falls during the period from the 20th day of March, 2020 to the 31st day of December, 2020, or such other date after the 31st day of December, 2020, as the Central Government may, by notification, specify in this behalf, for the completion or compliance of such action as--
(a) completion of any proceeding or passing of any order or issuance of any notice, intimation, notification, sanction or approval, or such other action, by whatever name called, by any authority, commission or tribunal, by whatever name called, under the provisions of the specified Act; or
(b) filing of any appeal, reply or application or furnishing of any report, document, return or statement or such other record, by whatever name called, under the provisions of the specified Act; or
(c) in case where the specified Act is
In the Income-tax Act, 1961,--
(I) in Section 6, with effect from the 1st day of April, 2021,--
(a) in clause (1), in Explanation 1, in clause (b), for the words "the citizen or person of Indian origin", the words "such person" shall be substituted;
(b) in clause (1A), the following Explanation shall be inserted, namely:--
"Explanation.--For the removal of doubts, it is hereby declared that this clause shall not apply in case of an individual who is said to be resident in India in the previous year under clause (1).";
(c) in clause (6), in the Explanation, the words "and which is not deemed to accrue or arise in India." shall be added at the end;
(II) in Section 10,--
(a) in clause (4D), with effect from the 1st day of April, 2021,--
(i) for the words "convertible foreign exchange, to the
In Section 3 of the Direct Tax Vivad Se Vishwas Act, 2020,--
(a) in the opening portion, for the words, "under the provisions of this Act on or before the last date" the words "under the provisions of this Act on or before such date as may be notified" shall be substituted and shall be deemed to have been substituted;
(b) in the Table,--
(i) in third column, in the heading, for the figures, letters and words "31st day of March, 2020", the figures, letters and words "31st day of December, 2020 or such later date as may be notified" shall be substituted and shall be deemed to have been substituted;
(ii) in fourth column, in the heading, for the figures, letters and words "1st day of April, 2020", the figures, letters and words "1st day of January, 2021 or such later date as may be notified" shall be substituted and shall be deemed to have been substituted;
Notwithstanding anything contained in the Central Excise Act, 1944 (1 of 1944), the Customs Act, 1962 (52 of 1962) (except sections 30, 30A, 41, 41A, 46 and 47), the Customs Tariff Act, 1975 (51 of 1975) or Chapter V of the Finance Act, 1994 (32 of 1994), as it stood prior to its omission vide section 173 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (12 of 2017) with effect from the 1st day of July, 2017, the time limit specified in, or prescribed or notified under, the said Acts which falls during the period from the 20th day of March, 2020 to the 29th day of September, 2020 or such other date after the 29th day of September, 2020 as the Central Government may, by notification, specify, for the completion or compliance of such action as--
(a) completion of any proceeding or issuance of any order, notice, intimation, notification or sanction or approval, by whatever name called, by any authority, commission, tribunal, by whatever name c
After section 168 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017, the following section shall be inserted, namely:--
'168A. Power of Government to extend time limit in special circumstances
(1) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, the Government may, on the recommendations of the Council, by notification, extend the time limit specified in, or prescribed or notified under, this Act in respect of actions which cannot be completed of complied with due to force majeure.
(2) The power to issue notification under sub-section (1) shall include the power to give retrospective effect to such notification from a date not earlier than the date of commencement of this Act.
Explanation.--For the purposes of this section, the expression "force majeure" means a case of war, epidemic, flood, drought, fire, cyclone, earthquake or any other calamity caused by nature or otherwise
In section 127 of the Finance (No. 2) Act, 2019,--
(i) in sub-section (1), for the words "within a period of sixty days from the date of receipt of the said declaration", the words, figures and letters "on or before the 31st day of May, 2020" shall be substituted;
(ii) in sub-section (2), for the words "within thirty days of the date of receipt of the declaration", the words, figures and letters "on or before the 1st day of May, 2020" shall be substituted;
(iii) in sub-section (4), for the words "within a period of sixty days from the date of receipt of the declaration", the words, figures and letters "on or before the 31st day of May, 2020" shall be substituted;
(iv) in sub-section (5), for the words "within a period of thirty days from the date of issue of such statement", the words, figures and letters "on or before the 30th day of June, 2020" shall be substituted.
In the Finance Act, 2020, in section 2, with effect from the 1st day of April, 2020,--
(i) in sub-section (6),--
(A) in clause (a), for the words "being a non-resident", the words, figures and letter "being a non-resident, except in case of deduction on income by way of dividend under section 196D of the Income-tax Act" shall be substituted and shall be deemed to have been substituted;
(B) after clause (a), the following clause shall be inserted and shall be deemed to have been inserted, namely:--
"(aa) in the case of every individual or Hindu undivided family or association of persons or body of individuals, whether incorporated or not, or every artificial juridical person referred to in sub-clause (vii) of clause (31) of section 2 of the Income-tax Act, being a non-resident, in case of deduction on income by way of dividend under section 196D of that Act, calculated,--
(1) If any difficulty arises in giving effect to the provisions of this Act, the Central Government may, by order, not inconsistent with the provisions of this Act, remove the difficulty:
Provided that no such order shall be made after the expiry of a period of two years from the end of the month in which this Act has received the assent of the President.
(2) Every order made under this section shall be laid before each House of Parliament.
(1) The Taxation and Other Laws (Relaxation of Certain Provisions) Ordinance, 2020 (Ord. 2 of 2020) is hereby repealed.
(2) Notwithstanding such repeal, anything done, any notification issued or any action taken under the said Ordinance, shall be deemed to have been done, issued or taken under the corresponding provisions of this Act.
STATEMENT OF OBJECTS AND REASONS
1. The outbreak of Novel Corona Virus (COVID-19) pandemic across many countries of the world, including India, has caused immense loss to lives of people and given rise to unprecedented humanitarian and economic crisis in the country. Due to vagaries of pandemic, a national lockdown was imposed which had to be further extended. Due to very rapid spread of pandemic, social distancing had to be ensured immediately to prevent society at large from its disastrous consequences. This necessitated ease of compliance under certain tax and other laws.
2. As Parliament was not in session and in view of the urgency, the Taxation and Other Laws (Relaxation of Certain Provisions) Ordinance, 2020 (Ord. 2 of 2020) was promulgated on the 31st day of March, 2020 which, inter alia, relaxed certain provisions of the specified Acts relating to direct taxes, indirect taxes and prohibition of Benami propert
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