COVID-19 almost occupied each country of the World. It was first detected in the month of Jan 2020. Perhaps, it has not been considered that seriously by such countries.
The statistics are as shown in the below table at the start of epidemics is really alarming.
- In view of the growing demand for hand sanitizers, researchers of CSIR-Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology developed hand sanitizer with natural flavors, active tea constituents and alcohol content. It does not include parabens, triclosan, synthetic fragrance and phthalates.
- The Union health ministry on Monday activated a toll-free 24×7 national helpline number 1075, to address queries related to the infection.
- India is heading towards a countrywide lockdown mode.
- Indian economy is not immune to coronavirus pandemic, says RBI Governor.
- Mandatory quarantine of passengers coming from UAE, Qatar, Oman, Kuwai & other countries.
- All religious places and archaeological places, gardens, public places etc has been closed down.
- All the modes of travel have been suspended except for essential service.
- India is in the second transmission stage of the pandemic Covid-19 coronavirus
- Indian Army establishes quarantine facilities in over eight places.
- Social Gatherings, Marriage etc are restricted.
- Number of offices have allowed employees for “Work from Home”.
- Number of countries/ states banned entries resulting into Visa cancellation and travel across the world.
IMPACT ON ECONOMY:
COVID -19 has been declared as one epidemics and President of USA has declared the emergency and is of the opinion that such epidemics will continue upto August 2020. India being quickly populated will be badly affected, if it is not prevented for spreading in this week.
Almost economy has come to doldrum and imports and exports of India have adversely affected.
Indian Economy was going through difficult situation and it will further badly affected due to Covid-19. Therefore, this is the time, each Industrialist, entrepreneur & businessman have to find the method of doing the business in different manner, continuous innovation and alternate solution to be a successful leader for bringing economy from worst to better. Any problem always bring better opportunity. Let us be optimistic.
Govt. has announced number of financial packages to ensure the needy and poor gets the shelter & food and other essentials.
HON. FINANCE MINISTER HAS PROVIDED SOME RELIEF :
GST/INDIRECT TAX:
1. Last date for filing GSTR-3B in March, April and May 2020 (i.e. for Feb 20, March 20 & May 20) will be extended till the last week of 30th June, 2020 for those having aggregate annual turnover less than Rs. 5 Crore. No interest, late fee, and penalty to be charged.
2. Others (Turnover above 5Cr) can file the return due in March, April & May 20 by last week of June 2020 but the same would attract reduced rate of interest @ 9% p.a. from 15 days after due date. No late fees and penalty to be charged, if complied before till 30th June 2020.
3. Date for opting for composition scheme is extended till the last week of June, 2020. Further, the last date for making payments for the quarter ending 31st March, 2020 and filing of return for 2019-20 by the composition dealers will be extended till the last week of June, 2020.
4. Date for filing GST annual returns of FY 18-19, which is due on 31st March, 2020 is extended till the last week of June 2020.
5. Due date for issue of notice, notification, approval order, sanction order, filing of appeal, furnishing of return, statements, applications, reports, any other documents, time limit for any compliance under the GST laws where the time limit is expiring between 20th March 2020 to 29th June 2020 shall be extended to 30th June 2020.
6. Necessary legal circulars and legislative amendments to give effect to the aforesaid GST relief shall follow with the approval of GST Council.
7. Payment date under Sabka Vishwas Scheme shall be extended to 30th June, 2020. No interest for this period shall be charged if paid by 30th June, 2020.
CUSTOMS
1. 24X7 Custom clearance till end of 30th June, 2020
2. Due date for issue of notice, notification, approval order, sanction order, filing of appeal, furnishing applications, reports, any other documents etc., time limit for any compliance under the Customs Act and other allied Laws where the time limit is expiring between 20th March 2020 to 29th June 2020 shall be extended to 30th June 2020.
INCOME TAX:
1. Extend last date for income tax returns for (FY 18-19) from 31st March, 2020 to 30th June, 2020.
2. Aadhaar-PAN linking date to be extended from 31st March, 2020 to 30th June, 2020.
3. Vivad se Vishwas scheme – no additional 10% amount, if payment made by June 30, 2020.
4. Due dates for issue of notice, intimation, notification, approval order, sanction order, filing of appeal, furnishing of return, statements, applications, reports, any other documents and time limit for completion of proceedings by the authority and any compliance by the taxpayer including investment in saving instruments or investments for roll over benefit of capital gains under Income Tax Act, Wealth Tax Act, Prohibition of Benami Property Transaction Act, Black Money Act, STT law, CTT Law, Equalization Levy law, Vivad Se Vishwas law where the time limit is expiring between 20th March 2020 to 29th June 2020 shall be extended to 30th June 2020.
5. For delayed payments of advanced tax, self-assessment tax, regular tax, TDS, TCS, equalization levy, STT, CTT made between 20th March 2020 and 30th June 2020, reduced interest rate at 9% instead of 12 %/18 % per annum ( i.e. 0.75% per month instead of 1/1.5 percent per month) will be charged for this period. No late fee/penalty shall be charged for delay relating to this period.
6. Necessary legal circulars and legislative amendments for giving effect to the aforesaid relief shall be issued in due course.
FINANCIAL SERVICES
1. Relaxations for 3 months
- Debit cardholders to withdraw cash for free from any other banks’ ATM for 3 months
- Waiver of minimum balance fee
- Reduced bank charges for digital trade transactions for all trade finance consumers
CORPORATE AFFAIRS:
1. No additional fees shall be charged for late filing during a moratorium period from 1st April to 30th September 2020, in respect of any document, return, statement etc., required to be filed in the MCA-21 Registry, irrespective of its due date, which will not only reduce the compliance burden, including financial burden of companies/ LLPs at large, but also enable long-standing non- compliant companies/ LLPs to make a ‘fresh start’;
2. The mandatory requirement of holding meetings of the Board of the companies within prescribed interval provided in the Companies Act (120 days), 2013, shall be extended by a period of 60 days till next two quarters i.e., till 30th September;
3. Applicability of Companies (Auditor’s Report) Order, 2020 shall be made applicable from the financial year 2020-2021 instead of from 2019-2020 notified earlier. This will significantly ease the burden on companies & their auditors for the year 2019-20.
4. As per Schedule 4 to the Companies Act, 2013, Independent Directors are required to hold at least one meeting without the attendance of Non-independent directors and members of management. For the year 2019-20, if the IDs of a company have not been able to hold even one meeting, the same shall not be viewed as a violation.
5. Requirement to create a Deposit reserve of 20% of deposits maturing during the financial year 2020-21 before 30th April 2020 shall be allowed to be complied with till 30th June 2020.
6. Requirement to invest 15% of debentures maturing during a particular year in specified instruments before 30th April 2020, may be done so before 30th June 2020.
7. Newly incorporated companies are required to file a declaration for Commencement of Business within 6 months of incorporation. An additional time of 6 more months shall be allowed.
8. Non-compliance of minimum residency in India for a period of at least 182 days by at least one director of every company, under Section 149 of the Companies Act, shall not be treated as a violation.
9. Due to the emerging financial distress faced by most companies on account of the large-scale economic distress caused by COVID 19, it has been decided to raise the threshold of default under section 4 of the IBC 2016 to Rs 1 crore (from the existing threshold of Rs 1 lakh). This will by and large prevent triggering of insolvency proceedings against MSMEs. If the current situation continues beyond 30th of April 2020, we may consider suspending section 7, 9 and 10 of the IBC 2016 for a period of 6 months so as to stop companies at large from being forced into insolvency proceedings in such force majeure causes of default.
RBI HAS ALSO ANNOUNCED CERTAIN MEASURES :
1. Repo rate reduced by 75 basis points to 4.4%.
2. Rev repo reduced by 90 basis points to 4%
3. GDP growth for Q4 19-20 and FY 20-21 to be affected.
4. Aggregate demand may weaken
5. Future outlook uncertain and negative
6. CRR reduced by 100 basis points to 3% for 1 year to release 1.37 lakh crores
7. Min daily CRR balance reduced from 90% – 80% till 30/06/2020
8. 3.74 lakh crore liquidity injected
9. 3 month moratorium on payment of instalments of Term Loan outstanding
10. Interest on WC facilities to be deferred by 3 months. Such deferment not to be considered for NPA
11. Revised DP calculations by reassessing WC cycle
12. All measures not to effect credit history
13. Total liquidity injection into market is 3.4% of GDP
However, Economy will take long time to come out from long term impact on Global Economy on account of wide spread COVID-19.
I suggest some of the changes which will be helpful:
1) DURING LOCKDOWN PERIOD
Step : 1 : What’s New – Effective use of Team’s
- Take measures
- Schedule Work
- Schedule Team
- Have Communication – Internal & External
- Control & Review
Step : 2 : “Play to your strengths. If you aren’t great at something, do more to be great at.”
- Think Differently..
- Updating the Database..
- Revamp Checklists, Manual’s, Dashboards, Process Flow, Bill of Material, Work Instructions, etc. etc.
- Create effective tools for repetitive work and implement value engineering techniques
- Create effective client’s database..
- Identify pending tasks.. Delegate.. Complete..
Step : 3 : #Workeasy..#Author..#Scanning..#Famous#Workcosts#Contracts
- Be Creative..
- Do something Exceptional..
- Create Easy go notes/lists/books for various tasks..
- Exceptional analysis of past details for next plans..
Step : 4 : “Stop being a victim and waiting for somebody else to open up an opportunity for you..” Be Smart.. Create Opportunities..
- Identify Business opportunities..
- Prepare Service/product modules at maximum you can..
- Standardization in each process and work flow in production & service process
- Think at Micro Level.. As you are Creative..
Step 5: “Time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.”
- Identify New Clients (Untouched) from Database..
- Approach them for new online work modules..
- Follow the controls with strict manner..
- Align and Enjoy the Work..
2) AFTER LOCKDOWN PERIOD
a) IMPLEMENT ON THE FIELD ON THE THOUGHT PROCESS CARRIED OUT DURING LOCK DOWN PERIOD:
During the lockdown process, lot of thought process / brainstorming might have been taken the re-birth and now this is the time to implement.
Each of the person have developed certain good practices during lockdown period like reduction in needs, valuing its own time and might have joined with new thoughts. Therefore all such thoughts has to be implemented. Since each of us have realized the impact on global economy. This is the high time to implement / inculcate the practice of cost control and cost reduction. All measures needs to be taken for budgetary control, inventory control, constant time & process monitoring and also find the path of cost control & cost reduction, so as to achieve target cost.
This will be the high time to implement Management Accounting Principles and techniques.
b) DECENTRALIZATION WITH CENTRALISED CONTROL
At present, manufacturing sector has grown in certain segments / industrial towns and therefore, big manufacturing sectors have emerged and such cities have been plunged with major hi density population, which will be definitely dangerous for human life. Now this is the time to re-think on different manufacturing strategies including manufacturing at different places, outsourcing and working out the methodology of innovative methods of value engineering and cost reduction.
Similarly, rather than working in office, work from home can be promoted with proper introduction of systems of productivity and efficiency in this virtual world.
Further, outsourcing will be one of the best suitable alternative and majority of the service function can be outsourced which will also result in substantial cost reduction. Service functions can be outsourced and such services also can be provided from small offices in small town. Only one has to ensure proper control mechanism of centralised monitoring, which will be more cost effective.
c) ACCEPTANCE OF GANDHIAN PHILOSOPHY:
Mahatma Gandhi used to preach that villages needs to be self sufficient and towns / cities should not be burdened. If villages are made self sufficient by way of creating Cottage Industry, SSI , MSME, it will be much better for economy and environment. Education & health facilities also to be made available in villages and therefore there will be no burden on the town and cities. Even now, we can consider the same which will help not only to reduce the manufacturing / service part, since local persons will get the employment opportunity at lower cost and also can concentrate on agricultural economy. It will also add to the logistics and therefore there is a demand in automobile and infrastructure sector.
d) AUTOMATION :
Better methodology of existing manufacturing will lead the better productivity and build efficiency. Lead time from conversion of raw material to the distribution without consumer will be substantially reduced through automation. Today, electronic sectors had successfully provided different opportunities of centralised working with virtual control. Therefore, Decentralised functioning of manpower to virtual control will bring substantial cost reduction in overheads. It will also provide ample opportunities of outsourcing. Thereby reducing long term liabilities on account of employment creation.
e) OUTSOURCING :
It is high time to totally outsource following activities to the experts who can have the capability to provide accurate and timely services through their expertise knowledge and systems. Such service provider also should be able to work from different places with virtual control system and data security.
- Accounting Services
- Accounts Payable Processing
- Accounts Receivable Processing.
- Sales Tax Form Follow-up and records.
- Centralized Document Processing
- Data Entry Operations
- Fixed Assets Management
- TDS Return, Forms etc.
- Various assessment related workings
- Various Returns under Tax Laws & other commercial laws in India
- Inventory support services
- Processing of Employee reimbursements
- Logistics Functions and related document processing
- Legal documentation Processing/ Vendor Agreements Drafting
- Labor laws related records & compliance
- Support for documentation / submission for various assessment under tax laws
- Back Office support for documentation/ Reconciliation / Vendor follow-up
- Any other Support functions in commercial field
Above list is illustrative and not exhaustive.
I strongly believe, each type of epidemics / problems opens the doors of the opportunities and let us be the first person to grab such opportunity and help India to become superpower and country leading to the world in all sphere of activities.
Author Bio
Mr Ashok Nawal
Your article clarify all the doubts which I had. Indeed this is a very desperate time for everyone and we should be updated about all the steps and changes which our government is taking.