<span style="color: #222222;">Lok Sabha gave its nod to the Taxation and Other Laws (Relaxation and Amendment of Certain Provisions) Bill, 2020 today. Earlier, in her reply Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the bill aims at providing relaxations related to compliance by extending time limit and waiving penalty in relation to certain specified laws. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">These laws include the Income Tax Act, 1961 (IT Act), some Finance Acts, the Central Excise Act, 1944, the Customs Act, 1962, and the Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act, 1988. The bill will replace the ordinance which was promulgated in March this year. The bill also extends the deadline for filing declaration and due amount under the Vivad Se Vishwas Scheme till 31st December.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The legislation provides these relaxations in view of spread of the coronavirus pandemic in India. The bill proposes amendment in the IT Act to provide that donations made by a person to the PM CARES Fund will be eligible for 100 per cent deduction in the taxable income. Congress, DMK, TMC, RSP members opposed the bill and said that it allows the government to invoke the clause of force majeure retrospectively, which they said will be misused to defer GST payments to State governments. The opposition also raised the issue of the PMCARES fund and asked the government about the reason to create a separate relief fund other than PMNRF.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Ms Sitharaman in her reply stated that the amendment in the tax related laws is brought about only to provide relief to taxpayers, so that statutory compliances can be met amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Speaking about the PMCARES fund, the finance minister explained its difference from the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund (PMNRF) by chalking out a comparative analysis. She said, PMCARES is a registered public trust whereas PMNRF has not been registered till date since its inception in 1948. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Ms. Sitharaman informed that PMNRF fund which also has been given tax deduction benefit does not come under the purview of RTI. She informed that both the relief funds are eligible for receiving the benefits under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) compliance. Pointing at a glaring deviation, she informed that PMNRF has the president of the Congress party as its member whereas PMCARES ex-officio members include Prime Minister, Defence Minister, Home Minister and Finance Minister of the country. Ms. Sitharaman highlighted that huge sums of amounts have been transferred from PMNRF to Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, which she said raises substantial doubt over the financial business of the relief fund.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Earlier in the day, speaking over the bill, Union State Finance Minister Anurag Thakur said that the opposition has been making baseless claims about the registered public fund right from its inception in March. He said, the opposition has been busy in scoring political mileage even when the country is reeling under the effects of a pandemic. Mr. Thakur emphatically asserted that the fund received in PMCARES trust is only through voluntary donations and raising doubts over it will be like casting aspersion on over 135 crore Indians. He enumerated a list of donors ranging from Children to elderly who have willfully contributed to the trust. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Taking a sharp jibe at Congress, he said, unlike the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund initiated in 1948 without any proper registrations and trust deed, the PMCARES fund is a registered public trust. Mr. Thakur added that even the Supreme Court in its recent judgement ruled out transferring of funds from PMCARES to National Disaster Relief Fund citing that all the donations to it are voluntary. He said, PMCARES has been constituted as per law and is functioning in the most transparent manner. The minister said the fund was constituted to help people affected by COVID pandemic. He said, the initial corpus of nearly Rs two lakh was donated in the fund by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.</span><br />''