Reasonable and rational extensions are desired to avoid repeated circulars, avoid uncertainty, confusion and to avoid wastage of time of bureaucrats officers and taxpayers and Compliances before last date need to be incentivised.

[DEV KUMAR KOTHARI]

Reasonable and rational extensions are desired to avoid repeated circulars, avoid uncertainty, confusion and to avoid wastage of time of bureaucrats officers   and taxpayers and

Compliances before last date need to be incentivised.

 Difficulties due to COVID19 led lockdowns and restricted working

We all are facing lot of difficulties due to COVID19 led lockdowns and restricted working and also uncertainties and worries about health conditions of own, his family , relations, friends  and neighbours. Sickness of anyone in contact has significant impact on any sensible person. Daily news for world over cases is also causing mental agony, and disturbance amongst people in different degrees depending on nature and sensitivity.

Health care is to be given very important position in list of priorities and it cannot be ignored. Health care is requiring more than normal time we spent prior to  COVID. Even careless people who did hardly any care about health , particularly young generation are now a bit  conscious of health and are spending and has to spend time on health care and precautions.

Difficulties in electronic filing of Forms, reports returns etc:

Besides Covid related difficulties in electronic filing of  forms, reports, returns, registration of DSC, e-verifications and longer time required in doing all these functions on new portals work has become more difficult and time consuming. This can be simply sensed if we just look at size and volumes of guidelines, FAQ, clarifications, and training manuals for working on new portals. It is really socking that  even software giant Infosys has not been able to design and implement new software, whereas in fact old software was doing well and it was not at all necessary to introduce altogether new software and website for doing the work which was performed very well in old portal and that could be changed , modified and improved without any difficulty.

Reasonable and rational extensions for compliance is desirable:

Due to COVID related problems, which are impacting all in some or other way and may be in different degree of actions and reactions in different part of country and world,  all have changed priorities for doing work. If any person is sick in family, then health care becomes most important in priority.

In such situations which are well known to GOI and local governments, it is desirable that bureaucrats should have more human consideration while understanding problems and finding out solutions.  

Bureaucrats are also facing similar problems:

Bureaucrats are also facing similar problems so time available to them is also restricted and therefore decision making should be such that un-necessary repeated actions are avoided. However, it appears that our bureaucracy is still looking into opportunities to keep panicky and tenterhook like situations by delaying extensions and by allowing short extensions and then repeated extension. This is not good for a REASONABLE ADMINISTRATION, particularly in Covid led problems all over.

Reasonable and rational extensions are desired:

Extension of time for compliance is important aspect of administration and public convenience in relation to filing of various forms, reports, returns etc. In view of above and many other situations and problems Reasonable and rational extensions are desired.

Recently some  extensions and further extensions have been allowed mainly due to difficulties in e-filing. Other Covid led problems have not been considered. Therefore short extensions have been granted. This is not good for reasonable tax administration or any administration.

For example recent circular which is  found  at link  https://www.taxmanagementindia.com/Print/print_circular.asp?ID=64994 is discussed in this write-up with highlights added.

Circular - Income Tax

Circular No. 15/2021

F. NO.225/49/2021/ITA-II

Government of India

Ministry of Finance

Department of Revenue

Central Board of Direct Taxes

New Delhi, Dated 3^rd August, 2021

Subject: Extension of time lines for electronic filing of various Forms under the Income-tax Act, 1961

1. On consideration of difficulties reported by the taxpayers and other stakeholders in electronic filing of certain Forms under the provisions of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (Act) read with Income-tax Rules, 1962 (Rules), the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), in exercise of its powers under Section 119 of the Act, extends the due dates for electronic filing of such Forms as under:

From amendment provision	observations
(i) The Quarterly statement in Form No. 15CC to be furnished by authorized dealer in respect of remittances made for the quarter ending on 30th June, 2021, required to be furnished on or before 15th July, 2021 under Rule 37BB of the Rules, as extended to 31st July, 2021 vide Circular No.12 of 2021 dated 25.06.2021, may be filed on or before 31st August, 2021;	Only 15 days time allowed as per provisions itself is very short in any circumstances. It was extended to 31st July and is now further extended to 31st August. A reasonable time should be fixed so that unnecessary defaults are avoided.
(ii) The Equalization Levy Statement in Form No.1 for the Financial Year 2020-21, which was required to be filed on or before 30th June, 2021, as extended to 31st July, 2021 vide Circular No.12 of 2021 dated 25.06.2021, may be filed on or before 31st August, 2021;	This is also a case where extension (s) have not been allowed in reasonable and rational manner and it is likely to cause need of further extension in near future.
(iii) The Statement of Income paid or credited by an investment fund to its unit holder in Form No. 64D for the Previous Year 2020-21, required to be furnished on or before 15th June, 2021 under Rule 12CB of the Rules, as extended to 15th July, 2021 vide Circular No.12 of 2021 dated 25.06.2021, may be furnished on or before 15th September, 2021 ;	Do
(iv) The Statement of Income paid or credited by an investment fund to its unit holder in Form No. 64C for the Previous Year 2020-21, required to be furnished on or before 30th June, 2021 under Rule 12CB of the Rules, as extended to 31st July, 2021 vide Circular No.12 of 2021 dated 25.06.2021, may be furnished on or before 30th September, 2021.	DO
2. Further, considering the non-availability of the utility for e-filing of certain Forms, the CBDT, in exercise of its powers under Section 119 of the Act, extends the due dates for electronic filing of such Forms as under:
(i) Intimation to be made by a Pension Fund in respect of each investment made by it in India in Form No. 10BBB for the quarter ending on 30th June, 2021, required to be furnished on or before 31st July, 2021 under Rule 2DB of the Rules, may be furnished on or before 30th September, 2021;
(ii) Intimation to be made by Sovereign Wealth Fund in respect of investments made by it in India in Form II SWF for the quarter ending on 30th June, 2021, required to be furnished on or before 31st July, 2021 as per Circular No.15 of 2020 dated 22.07.2020, may be furnished on or before 30th September, 2021.

3. It is also clarified that the above said forms, e-filed, after the expiry of time limits provided as per Circular No.12 of 2021 dated 25.06.2021 or as per the relevant provisions, till date, will stand regularised accordingly.

(Sourabh Jain)

Under Secretary to the Government of India

In the above circular which can be considered illustrative we find cases of repeated extensions, this is because in some cases originally time allowed was short, extension allowed was of a short duration causing need of further extension.

We also notice that there have been delays which were not earlier covered by extensions allowed and they are now being regularised by the contents of last paragraph of the circular that is

                “It is also clarified that the above said forms, e-filed, after the expiry of time limits provided as per Circular No.12 of 2021 dated 25.06.2021 or as per the relevant provisions, till date, will stand regularised accordingly”

A general circular is desired:

There are large number of provisions of Act and Rules which provided different dates of compliance. In view of difficulties being faced due to Covid and Portal problems a general circular is desired to  extend dates for all compliance and payments so that a reasonable time is allowed with certainty.

Incentives for early compliance can be allowed:

Pecuniary incentive:

Some incentives can be provided for early compliance and payments. These can be in nature of pecuniary incentive by way of interest, rebate or discount which can be availed in future while making payment of fees or tax.

Author recalls some incentives were found in provisions relating to wealth tax and estate duty for early payment.

Relaxation in future:

Incentive by way of relaxation can also be provided to allow some relief in compliance in future if in future some difficulties are faced and there is delay in compliance.

 For example suppose if a taxpayer files ROI 30 days before last date, then 30 days can be credited to him which he can be allowed to avail in future when he could not file ROI before last date.  In such situations ‘credit days’ ,  available can be added to last date for filing of ROI in future.

Such credit days can be allowed to be accumulated and utilized as and when required.

In view of computerized system this can be easily implemented by adding a feature in software.