Corporate and Professional Updates on 17th August 2019

Direct Tax Updates:

• Document Identification Number (DIN) Must For Any Communication By Income Tax Authority To Assesses- In order to prevent such instances and to maintain proper audit trail of all communication, the CBDT has, vide Circular No.19/2019 dated 14.08.2019 laid down parameters specifying the manner in which any communication issued by any income-tax authority relating to assessment, appeals, orders, statutory or otherwise, exemptions, enquiry, investigation, verification of information, penalty, prosecution, rectification, approval etc. to the assessee or any other person will be dealt with. All such communication issued on or after the 1st of October, 2019 shall carry a computer-generated Document Identification Number (DIN) duly quoted in the body of such communication.
• CBDT has also specified exceptional circumstances where the communication may be issued manually but only after recording reasons in writing and with the prior written approval of the Chief Commissioner / Director General of Income-Tax concerned. In cases where manual communication is required to be issued, the reason for issue of manual communication without DIN has to be specified alongwith the date of obtaining written approval of the Chief Commissioner / Director General of Income-Tax in a particular format.

RBI Updates:

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday liberalised the Gold Monetisation Scheme (GMS), 2015, allowing depositors to directly deposit their bullion with either banks, refiners or collection and purity testing centres (CPTCs). The current scheme mandates that customers have to first approach the CPTCs which are approved by the Bureau of Indian Standards. The GMS scheme had been able to garner only 16 tonnes of gold as deposits in the last four years. This was largely because of banks’ apathy towards it and also due to practical difficulties of banks in dealing with collection-hallmarking centres. The scheme was launched by the Prime Minister in November 2015 along with sovereign gold bonds and India gold coins. These centres had issued depositors purity certificate on gold deposited, and based on the centres’ certificate, a bank was supposed to open a deposit account and credit gold.
• Banks had been raising issues about the credit worthiness of CPTCs and were not comfortable in dealing with them for GMS. After several rounds of meetings, the government accepted the banks’ demand. In view of this, RBI said in the circular on Friday that, “All deposits under the scheme shall be made at the CPTC. Provided that, at their discretion, banks may accept the deposit of gold at designated branches, especially from larger depositors.” Temples, high networth individuals or HNIs and entities like fund houses, trusts and even government entities would find it easier to deal directly with banks instead of CPTCs. The RBI also further relaxed norms under the scheme by which banks, at their discretion, can, “allow the depositors to deposit their gold directly with the refiners that have facilities to carry out final assaying and to issue the deposit receipts of standard gold of 995 fineness to the depositor.” This suits the temples also. Indian temples are estimated to be holding 4,000 tonnes of gold and are capable of depositing gold in tonnes under the scheme.
• Several depositors had earlier complained that banks are not taking interest in accepting deposits under the GMS in many cities even from large depositors. Banks had hardly publicised that they run the GMS. On Friday, the RBI said in the circular that banks have to identify branches in all states and union territories where they can accept deposits. All designated banks have now been mandated by the RBI to give adequate publicity to the scheme through their branches, websites and other channels.

Other Updates:

• US, China seeking to revive trade talks: Trump’s advisor
• Brexit minister signs order to end EU laws in Britain
• Credit demand subdued, economy needs stimulus: SBI
• Govt to clarify on FDI policy on digital media
• Govt increases oil, gas bidding round to 3 times a yr
• Scraps may help India’s car makers beat the slump
• BOI hoping to recover around Rs 2,500 crore: Official
• More than 4 lakh unsold apartments in 9 cites, estimates brokerage firm
• Govt plans debt waiver for small distressed borrowers under insolvency law
• Moglix to set up industrial distribution centres in 25 major hubs of India
• M&M lays off 1,500 temporary workers, seeks govt stimulus for industry
• Maruti seeks GST benefit for hybrid, CNG cars to promote green mobility
• Ministry keeps new CSR amendments on hold
• Economic ties between India and China will continue to grow, finds CII survey
• Coffee Day Enterprises debt at Rs 4,970 crore
• Cipla shareholders approve raising up to Rs 3,000 crore
• CBI raids Moser Baer office, directors’ premises
• Kharif sowing improves on widespread rain
• Traders body calls for boycott of Chinese goods, seeks up to 500% import duty
• ‘NBFCs will get recapitalized, banks will get more prudent with lending’
• SBI extends repayment period for stressed automobile dealers by 15-30 days
• Confident of coming out of RBI’s PCA framework by March next year: UCO Bank CMD
• Power gencos’ outstanding dues from discoms rise by 30% to ₹46k crore in June
• SBI expects 12-14% credit growth this fiscal, says Chairman Rajnish Kumar
• Tech Mahindra divests 73.38% stake in subsidiary to US-based Resolve Systems for $2 million
• Government sets up committee to rationalise additional taxes on Air Turbine Fuel
• India’s holding of US govt securities jumps to USD 162.7 bln
• FPIs pull out Rs 8,319 cr in Aug amid persisting negative sentiment
• NCLAT spikes banks’ plea against MBL resolution
• Nine of top-10 firms lose Rs 84,354 cr in market valuation

Key Due Dates:

• STATUTORY COMPLIANCE CALENDARS FOR AUGUST 2019: 07 August: TDS/TCS LIABILITY DEPOSIT – Due date of depositing TDS/TCS liabilities for previous month.
• 7 August: EQUALIZATION LEVY DEPOSIT- Equalization Levy is a direct tax, which is withheld at the time of payment by the service recipient where the annual payment made to one service provider (Non  Residents only) exceeds Rs. 1,00,000 in one financial year for the specified and notified services.
• 10 August: GSTR-7 RETURN FILLING DUE DATE – Due Date for filing GSTR-7 by person liable to deduct TDS under GST for previous   quarter.
• 10 August: GSTR-8 RETURN FILLING DUE DATE – GSTR-8 is a return to be filed by e-commerce operators who are required to deduct TCS (Tax collected at source) under GST.
• 11 August: GSTR-1 RETURN FILLING DUE DATE – GST Filing of returns by registered person with aggregate turnover more than 1.50 crores.
• 13 August:  GSTR-6 RETURN FILLING DUE DATE- Due Date for filing return by Input Service Distributors for previous month.
• 15 August:  PROVIDEND FUND / ESI DUE DATES- Due date for payment of Provident fund and ESI contribution for the previous month.
• 20 August: GSTR-5 RETURN FILLING DUE DATE- Due date of GSTR-5 (for Non-resident Taxable person) for the Previous month.
• 20 August: GSTR-5A RETURN FILLING DUE DATE- Return by person providing online information and database access or retrieval services by a person located outside India made to Non-Taxable persons in India for the previous month.
• 20 August: GSTR-3B RETURN FILLING DUE DATE – Due date for filling GSTR – 3B return for Previous month.
• 31 August: INCOME TAX RETURN EXTENDED- Filing income tax for individual and non-corporates [who are not subject to tax audit].
• 31 August: GSTR-9 RETURN FILLING DUE DATE – Annual Return to be filed by Regular Taxpayers filing GSTR 1, GSTR 2, and GSTR 3. It needs to be filed electronically on the GST portal directly or through a facilitation center.
• 31 August: GSTR-9A RETURN FILLING DUE DATE – Taxable Persons paying tax under Section 10 of CGST Act, the composition scheme, are required to submit their annual returns in Form GSTR 9A.
• 31 August: GSTR-9B RETURN FILLING DUE DATE- Annual Return to be filed by e-commerce operators who have filed GSTR 8 during the financial year.
• 31 August: GSTR-9C RETURN FILLING DUE DATE- Taxpayers whose annual turnover exceeds INR 2 crores in a Financial Year are required to get their accounts audited by a practicing Chartered Accountant or Cost Accountant before filing returns in Form GSTR 9C.