RBI shifts its Accounting Year to July 2020-Mar 2021

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has planned to align its financial year with the centre.
The central board of the RBI, in a meeting at New Delhi on Saturday, finalised that the fiscal year 2021-22 for the central bank will start from April 1. Fiscal 2019-20 will end on June 30, 2020 while fiscal year 2020-21 will be beginning on July 1, 2020 but end on March 31, 2021. Thereafter, all fiscal year will begin on April 01 every year.

For the time being, both the RBI and the Government adhere the ‘T plus one’ system. This means that the financial year stretches over two successive years. However, there is one fundamental difference. The fiscal year for the Centre begins on April 1 in ‘T’ (first year) and ends on March 31st in ‘T+1’ (second year). The fiscal year for the RBI, however, starts on July 1 in the first year and finishes on June 30 in the next year.

The alignment with the Government will bring a change in the way the Central bank does book keeping. Besides, it may not need them to announce the interim dividend.

Following are the decisions with respect to statutory and regulatory compliance matters related to various sectors: —

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.

 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.  

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.

Necessary legal circulars and legislative amendments for giving effect to the aforesaid relief shall be issued in due course.