Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday announced that due date for filing all income tax returns has been extended November 30.
Earlier, the deadline to file IT return was on July 31.
Sitharaman said TDS, TCS rate for non-salaried payments for period up to March 31, 2021 has been slashed by 25 per cent. It will release Rs 50,000 crore into the system, she said.
To provide more funds at the disposal of taxpayers, the rates of TDS for non-salaried specified payments and of TCS for the specified receipts shall be reduced by 25 per cent of the existing rates.
Now, payment for contract, professional fees, interest, rent, dividend, commission and brokerage shall be eligible for reduced rate of TDS, the minister said.
The government also decided to bring down the statutory PF contribution by employer from 12 per cent to 10 percent. It would provide a liquidity relief of Rs 6,750 crore, Sitharaman claimed.
The decision to reduce the EPF statutory deductions for both employers and employees to 20 per cent for the next three months will benefit around 650,000 companies.
At present, employees deposit 24 per cent, and employers 12 per cent of the basic salary as EPF deductions every month.
The move will not only help the employers, but will be beneficial for the employees as they would take home 2 per cent more pay.
However, central PSUs and state PSUs will continue to pay 12 per cent of the employer’s share and employees will pay 10 per cent, the finance minister said.