Compliance relief for companies: moratorium on filing fees and extended deadlines to ease regulatory burden during pandemic.
The Ministry of Corporate Affairs provided temporary compliance relaxations for companies and LLPs during the COVID-19 period: a moratorium on additional late filing fees in the MCA-21 registry, deferment of the Auditor's Report Order applicability, extensions for deposit and debenture-related reserves and investments, additional time for commencement-of-business filings and non-enforcement of director residency requirements for the specified year. Board meeting intervals were extended and meetings permitted via video/audio means; independent directors' separate meeting requirement will not be treated as violation if not held in the affected year. A fee free Companies Affirmation of Readiness web form and guidance on CSR eligibility for COVID 19 spending were also issued. (AI Summary)

IBC threshold change temporarily limits insolvency proceedings for small borrowers and suspends certain initiation provisions.
Relief measures temporarily relax compliance timelines and transactional charges across tax, corporate, customs and financial sectors up to 30 June 2020. Under income tax regimes, timelines for belated returns, linking identifiers, dispute settlement enrollment and various notices, intimations and appeals are extended and interest on delayed tax liabilities is reduced to 0.75% per month. GST filing and composition opt-in dates are extended with selective waiver or reduction of interest and penalties; company law and insolvency provisions receive targeted moratoria and suspension to limit proceedings for smaller defaults. (AI Summary)

Goods transport agency service: absence of consignment note does not exempt transportation from GST liability, substance controls classification.
The authority held that absence of a consignment note does not determine GST treatment: if the transporter assumes lien and responsibility for safe delivery the service is a Goods Transport Agency service, whereas provision of vehicles for client use constitutes rental services of transport vehicles. Classification and applicable exemptions depend on the substantive contractual terms and operational facts rather than sole reliance on documentary form such as the e way bill or non issuance of a consignment note. (AI Summary)

TLTRO deployment rules extended; penalty interest for non-deployment and HTM exclusion for priority sector calculations apply.
RBI's TLTRO 2.0 FAQs extend the deployment window to 45 working days and impose interest at the policy repo rate plus 200 basis points for funds not deployed within that period, payable at maturity. The primary/secondary market split requirement and the fourth-TLTRO single-issuer cap do not apply to TLTRO 2.0. At least 50% of TLTRO 2.0 funds must be invested in specified securities of small and mid-sized NBFCs and MFIs, and banks may exclude the face value of such HTM securities from Adjusted Non-Food Bank Credit for priority sector calculations. (AI Summary)

Penalty for false entries: statutory charge equals the aggregate false or omitted entry, focused on fake invoice schemes.
Section 271AAD authorises a penalty equal to the aggregate amount of any false or omitted entry in books of account found during proceedings under the Act, and allows the same penalty against persons who cause such entries. The Explanation treats forged or falsified documents, invoices without actual supply or receipt, and invoices involving non existent persons as false entry. Penalty is available only in the course of assessment proceedings, requires existence of books of account, and places onus on the Assessing Officer to establish falsity or omission; the provision is directed principally at schemes using fake GST invoices to claim input tax credit. (AI Summary)

Charitable trusts face Finance Act 2020 changes on registration, corpus donations, taxability of receipts, and accreted income.
The Finance Act, 2020 redefines registration/approval routes for charitable institutions (10(23C) versus 12AB/12A), confirms corpus donations as exempt capital receipts under section 11(1)(d) when donor directed, limits application of section 56(2)(x) by provisos for registered/approved entities, preserves the incidental business and predominant object tests (with 20% receipt threshold for other public utility activities), restates accumulation/application rules (including 15% deemed application and five year accumulation), and imposes tax on accreted income on specified change of status events. (AI Summary)

Rights issue relaxations permit eased fast track eligibility and reduced subscription hurdles with enhanced disclosure requirements.
Temporary relaxations alter eligibility, disclosure and subscription conditions for rights issues under the ICDR Regulations. Fast track rights issue eligibility thresholds are reduced for time and size criteria; settlement adherence is recognised; specified regulatory actions must be disclosed in the letter of offer; and audit qualifications require restated financials or disclosures. The minimum subscription rule is relaxed to allow issues within a lowered subscription band to succeed subject to application of proceeds to stated objects. The filing threshold for draft letter exemptions is raised while other eligibility and general conditions continue to apply. (AI Summary)

Auditor reporting requirements expanded under revised auditor's report order, mandating enhanced disclosures and due diligence for eligible companies.
The Order expands auditor reporting requirements for applicable companies and excludes specified company classes. Auditors must include detailed statements on fixed assets (records, verification, revaluation and title deeds), inventory verification and discrepancies, loans and advances including overdue amounts and related-party exposures, compliance with sections on loans and investments by directors, deposits and RBI directives, cost records, statutory dues and disputes, unrecorded income disclosures, defaults in borrowings and fund usage, application of public offer proceeds, fraud detection and reporting, internal audit adequacy, non-cash transactions with directors, RBI registration and CIC criteria, cash losses, auditor resignations, material uncertainty about one-year liabilities, CSR unspent transfers, and adverse CARO remarks in consolidated statements. (AI Summary)

Delayed payment redressal for MSMEs: mandatory facilitation mechanisms and reporting to prevent prolonged supplier payment delays.
Measures to address delayed payments to MSMEs establish mandatory institutional and reporting mechanisms: State/UT MSEFCs resolve disputes via conciliation and arbitration; companies must file half yearly returns with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs disclosing outstanding payments and reasons for delay; large companies and central public sector enterprises must onboard the Trade Receivables Discounting System (TReDS); and the MSME SAMADHAAN portal enables online registration and tracking of delayed payment references to streamline redressal. (AI Summary)

Writ of mandamus compels prompt decision on IGST refund after shipping bill amendment and administrative inaction.
The High Court directed the Principal Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner of Customs to examine amended shipping bills that now record previously paid IGST and to take an appropriate decision on sanctioning the refund claim in accordance with law within four weeks of receipt of the court's order, after the exporter's representations went unanswered following clerical omission of IGST on original shipping bills. (AI Summary)

Refund for mistake of law: recover unlawfully collected tax via civil suit or writ where burden not passed on.
Refunds for taxes paid under a mistake of law are recoverable either by restitutionary civil suit or by constitutional writ, provided the claimant acts within the limitation period measured from knowledge of the mistake or from the pronouncement invalidating the levy; statutory refund regimes bind claimants to their limitation rules, and relief may be denied where the claimant passed the tax burden to third parties, since restitution is not available to unjustly enrich one who did not bear the loss. (AI Summary)

GSTR-3B filing obligations clarified: simplified monthly self-declaration with specified conditions, extensions and compliance mechanisms.
Rule 61 permits, when timelines for detailed returns are extended, filing a simplified monthly declaration in Form GSTR-3B under Commissioner notified conditions; GSTR-3B requires summary reporting of outward and inward supplies, eligible input tax credit, exempt and nil rated supplies, inter state supplies to specified recipients, tax payments and TDS/TCS credits, with liabilities discharged by debiting the electronic cash or credit ledger. Numerous notifications fixed and extended filing dates, tailored deadlines by turnover and location, and granted targeted late fee waivers and interest concessions contingent on filing within specified windows. (AI Summary)

Legislative competence limited: retrospective VAT amendment invalidated for exceeding state power and being arbitrary.
Section 84A retroactively excluded the period between tribunal and higher court decisions for computing limitation, enabling revival of time-barred revision proceedings; the court held the amendment beyond State legislative competence and manifestly arbitrary, concluding it did not validly operate as a retrospective validation of assessments or collection contrary to constitutional protections. (AI Summary)

Court website search failures and rigid registry filing rules hinder public access to judgments and electronic retrieval.
Website deficiencies impede public access to judicial orders and judgments by returning incomplete or inaccurate search results and malfunctioning selection controls. An example shows searches by party, act, case number, judge name, and date omitted a known order that was recoverable only via free-text linking to a PDF. Registry staff refused to process emailed requests for missing judgments, citing mandatory filing rules, and declined further email correspondence, prompting a call for technological and procedural upgrades to ensure reliable online publication and searchable access. (AI Summary)

Suppression of facts in tax matters must be deliberate to invoke extended limitation; revenue must prove intent to evade tax.
Extended limitation for tax re-opening applies only where there is deliberate, positive suppression of facts with intent to evade tax; mere omission, late registration or incorrect statement without proof of willful concealment does not justify invoking the extended period, and the revenue bears the burden of proving intent. (AI Summary)

Residential status changes make some Indian citizens with high India income taxable as deemed residents, expanding tax scope and reporting.
Finance Act, 2020 adds Section 6(1A) deeming an Indian citizen resident where Indian source income (excluding foreign income) exceeds Rs. 15 lakh and the individual is not liable to tax elsewhere; Explanation 1(b) is amended to substitute 120 days for the prior 60 day rule for affected taxpayers, and Section 6(6) is expanded with new NOR conditions. The amendments broaden taxable scope to include foreign income derived from business controlled in or profession set up in India and trigger loss of non resident concessions, DTAA benefits, and mandatory foreign asset disclosure. (AI Summary)

Goods and Services Tax clarifies supply, registration, reverse charge and input tax credit compliance obligations under the unified regime.
GST replaced multiple central and state indirect taxes with a dual structure of CGST and SGST for intra state supplies and IGST for inter state supplies, allowing transitional credit for taxes on closing stock. GST is a levy on supply for consideration; taxable value is the transaction price inclusive of other statutory levies but excluding discounts. Principal liability to pay rests with the supplier, with specified reverse charge cases where the recipient pays. Registration, invoicing, input tax credit rules, online returns, e way bills and phased e invoicing are core compliance mechanisms. (AI Summary)

Timeline extension for tax compliance enables revised income tax return forms to claim extended deductions and rollovers.
CBDT is revising income tax return forms to implement the Covid 19 timeline extension so taxpayers can claim extended Chapter VIA B deductions and capital gains rollover benefits for FY 2019 20; the e filing utility and notified ITR formats will be updated to enable filing under the extended timelines. (AI Summary)

Compliance calendar extensions for SEBI listing and depository filings provide deadline relaxations and centralised submission guidance for listed companies.
NSE issued a Compliance Calendar consolidating SEBI's pandemic-related relaxations across listing, takeover and depository regulations, listing extended timelines and adjusted procedural requirements for filings such as board meeting notices, shareholding patterns, secretarial compliance reports, financial results, corporate governance reports and certificates from practicing company secretaries, and directing companies to consult the Listing Regulations and SEBI circulars for detailed conditions. (AI Summary)

TDS deduction under the new tax regime raises statutory conflict with legislated withholding rates and creates employer compliance burdens.
The statutory scheme requires employers to deduct tax from salary at the rates in force for the financial year as specified by the Finance Act. A departmental circular allowing withholding based on an employee's election of the new tax regime conflicts with those legislated rates, imposes additional compliance obligations on employers to obtain declarations and compute withholding accordingly, and therefore lacks clear statutory authorization despite potential benefit to many employees. (AI Summary)