Section 6 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (the Act) contains provisions relating to residency of a person. The status of an individual as to whether he is resident in India or a non-resident or not ordinarily resident, is dependent, inter-alia, on the period for which the person is in India during a year.

Various representations have been received stating that there are number of individuals who had come on a visit to India during the previous year 2019-20 for a particular duration and intended to leave India before the end of the previous year for maintaining their status as non-resident or not ordinary resident in India. However due to declaration of the lockdown and suspension of international flights owing to outbreak of Novel Corona Virus (COVID-19), they are required to prolong their stay in India. Concerns have been expressed that they may involuntarily end up becoming Indian residents without any intention to do so.

In order to avoid genuine hardship in such cases, the CBDT has decided vide circular no 11 dated May 8, 2020, that for the purposes of determining the residential status under section 6 of the Act during the previous year 2019-20 in respect of an individual who has come to India on a visit before 22^nd March, 2020 and:

• has been unable to leave India on or before 31st March 2020, his period of stay in India from 22^nd March, 2020 to 31^st March, 2020 shall not be taken into account; or
• has been quarantined in India on account of Novel Corona Virus (Covid-19) on or after 1^st March, 2020 and has departed on an evacuation flight on or before 31st March, 2020 or has been unable to leave India on or before 31^st March, 2020, his period of stay from the beginning of his quarantine to his date of departure or 31^st March, 2020, as the case may be, shall not be taken into account; or
• has departed on an evacuation flight on or before 31^st March, 2020, his period of stay in India from 22^nd March, 2020 to his date of departure shall not be taken into account.

Further, as the lockdown continues during the Financial Year 2020-21 and it is not yet clear as to when international flight operations would resume, a circular excluding the period of stay of these individuals up to the date of normalisation of international flight operations, for determination of the residential status for the previous year 2020-21 shall be issued after the said normalisation.

Residency status: COVID 19 related lockdown and quarantine periods excluded from stay-count to protect intended non resident status. To prevent involuntary change of tax residence due to travel restrictions, specified periods of stay caused by the COVID 19 lockdown and quarantine are excluded from the computation of an individual's residential status for the previous year: the lockdown period for those unable to depart, the quarantine period until departure or year-end for those quarantined, and the lockdown-to-departure period for those on evacuation flights. A further circular will address exclusions up to resumption of normal international flight operations for the following year.