Taxpayers who have not yet filed their income tax returns for FY19 have got time till the end of September to do so with the government giving a two-month extension of the due date.  In light of the constraints due to the COVID pandemic and to further ease compliances for taxpayers, the government on Wednesday extended the due date for filing of Income Tax Returns for FY 2018-19 (AY 2019-20) from July 31 to September 30, 2020. The notification was given by 

CBDT invoked the powers given under the Taxation and other Laws (Relaxation of Certain Provisions) Ordinance brought out in March to give extra time to taxpayers in view of the difficulties during the pandemic. Taxpayers were earlier given time till the end of November for filing returns for FY20.

The relaxation comes at a time the number of coronavirus infections in India has crossed 1.4 million and several parts of the country are under movement restrictions of some form or the other. One consideration for giving extra time for various statutory filings is to improve compliance.

Mean-while, With 52,123 people testing positive for coronavirus in a day, India’s COVID-19 tally near 16 lakh mark today, while the recoveries jumped to 9,88,029. The country’s death toll rose to 34,968 with 775 fatalities being recorded in a day. The fatality from COVID currently stands at 2.23% in India as compared to the global average of about 4%.

Total COVID19 positive cases stand at 15,83,792 including 5,28,242 active cases, 10,20,582 cured/discharged/migrated and 34,968 deaths, the health ministry said.

The recoveries on Tuesday is one of the highest ever recoveries in a single day. 32,553 COVID-19 patients were cured and discharged in the last 24 hours. The recovery rate stands at 64.51%. The gap between active patients and recovered patients have crossed 4 lakh and currently stands at 4,92,340.

More than four lakh COVID 19 tests were conducted in a single day on Tuesday. On 29th July, India tested a total of 4,46,642. With 4,46,642 samples tested in the last 24 hours, the cumulative testing stands at 1,81,90,382.

Around six in ten people living in some of India’s biggest slums have antibodies for the novel coronavirus indicating they’ve recovered from the infection, in what appears to be one of the highest population immunity levels known worldwide.

The findings, from a July serological survey of 6,936 people across three suburbs in India’s financial center of Mumbai, may explain why a steep drop in infections is being seen among the closely-packed population, despite new cases accelerating overall in the hard-hit country.