In view of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government of India had announced several important relief measures on tax and regulatory front through the Taxation and Other Laws (Relaxation of Certain Provisions) Ordinance, 2020 (the Ordinance). The Ordinance, inter-alia, provided for extension of various deadlines prescribed in the Income-tax Act, 1961 (the IT Act). Subsequently, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) have been issuing notifications¹ to extend the deadlines.

With COVID-19 still playing havoc, the CBDT issued a notification² to further extend the deadlines which were expiring on 31 March 2021. We, at BDO in India, have analysed and summarised the said notification hereunder:  

Particulars	Erstwhile due date	Extended due date
Intimation of Aadhar number and linking thereof with Permanent Account Number (PAN)	31 March 2021	30 June 2021
Issue of notice under section 148 of the IT Act (i.e. reassessment notice)	31 March 2021	30 April 2021
Passing of consequential order for direction issued by Dispute Resolution Panel under section 144C(13) of the IT Act (i.e. passing of final order by the Tax Officer)	31 March 2021	30 April 2021
Processing of Equalisaton Levy statements under section 168(1) of the Finance Act, 2016	31 March 2021	30 April 2021

 

BDO Comments

With the country staring at the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, the extension will bring a relief to the taxpayers as responding to notices / preparing an appeal could pose a challenge with the increasing COVID-19 numbers.