MINISTRY OF LAW AND JUSTICE
(Legislative Department)

New Delhi, the 31^st March, 2020/Chaitra 11, 1942 (Saka)

THE TAXATION AND OTHER LAWS (RELAXATION OF
CERTAIN PROVISIONS) ORDINANCE, 2020
No. 2 of 2020

Promulgated by the President in the Seventy-first Year of the Republic of India.

An Ordinance to provide relaxation in the provisions of certain Acts and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.

WHEREAS, in view of the spread of pandemic COVID-19 across many countries of the world including India, causing immense loss to the lives of people, it has become imperative to relax certain provisions, including extension of time limit, in the taxation and other laws;

AND WHEREAS, Parliament is not in session and the President is satisfied that circumstances exist which render it necessary for him to take immediate action;

NOW, THEREFORE, in exercise of the powers conferred by clause (1) of article 123 of the Constitution, the President is pleased to promulgate the following Ordinance: -

CHAPTER I
PRELIMINARY

1. (1) This Ordinance may be called the Taxation and Other Laws (Relaxation of Certain Provisions) Ordinance, 2020.

(2) Save as otherwise provided, it shall come into force at once.

2. (1) In this Ordinance, unless the context otherwise requires, -

(a) “specified Act” means-
(i) the Wealth-tax Act, 1957;
(ii) the Income-tax Act, 1961;
(iii) the Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act, 1988;
(iv) Chapter VII of the Finance (No. 2) Act, 2004;
(v) Chapter VII of the Finance Act, 2013;
(vi) the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and
Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015;
(vii) Chapter VIII of the Finance Act, 2016; or
(vi1i) the Direct Tax Vivad se Vishwas Act, 2020;
(b) “notification” means the notification published in the Official Gazette.

(2) The words and expressions used herein and not defined, but defined in the specified Act, the Central Excise Act,1944, the Customs Act, 1962, the Customs Tariff Act,1975 or the Finance Act,1994, as the case may be, shall have the meaning respectively assigned to them in that Act.

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CHAPTER VII
AMENDMENT TO THE CENTRAL GOODS AND SERVICES TAX ACT, 2017

8. After section 168 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017, the following section shall be inserted, namely:-

168A. (1) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, the Government may, on the recommendations of the Council, by notification, extend the time limit specified in, or prescribed or notified under, this Act in respect of actions which cannot be completed or complied with due to force majeure.

(2) The power to issue notification under sub-section (1) shall include the power to give retrospective effect to such notification from a date not earlier than the date of commencement of this Act.

Explanation.— For the purposes of this section, the expression "force majeure” means a case of war, epidemic, flood, drought, fire, cyclone, earthquake or any other calamity caused by nature or otherwise affecting the implementation of any of the provisions of this Act.’.

RAM NATH KOVIND,
President.
 

R. G NARAYANA RAJU,
Secretary to the Govt. of India.