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No inherent right to compassionate appointment but rather, it is a right based on certain criteria, especially to provide succor to a needy family – Supreme Court

Kindly refer to the Notification for details

The ESIC has extended the Atal Beemit Vyakti Kalyan Yojana till 30th June, 2021. This scheme grants monetary benefits to Insured Persons who became unemployed on account of COVID 19 Lockdown. The eligibility condition of 90 days of unemployment has been reduced to 30 days of unemployment and the benefit has been increased from 25% to 50% of the average pay.

The SOP’s for claims have also been notified.

The Supreme Court of India, in a case relating to payment of customs duty held that the precise time when the gazette is published in the electronic mode assumes significance.

Facts

The arrival of the goods and the filing of the IGM was before 18:00 hours on 16 February 2019. The First respondent filed bill of entry number 2083178 dated 16 February 2019 seeking clearance of the goods for home consumption. The bill of entry was self assessed at 18:08 hours under the provisions of Section 17(1) of the Customs Act 19622 under Customs Tariff Heading 2523910 by levying nil customs duty in terms of notification 68/2012 dated 31 December 2012

On 16 February 2019, notification 5/2019 was issued by the Ministry of Finance in the Department of Revenue, in exercise of powers conferred by sub-section (1) of Section 8A of the Customs Tariff Act 1975.3 By this notification, a new tariff entry was introduced in Chapter 98 of Section XXI in the following terms:notifying that all goods originating in or exported from the Islamic Republic of Pakistan – 200 % -”.

The notification contains a reference to the date (16 February 2019) and time (20:46:58) at which it was uploaded and published in the e-Gazette of the Government of India. Based on the enhancement in the rate of duty brought about by the notification, the customs authorities refused to release the goods which were assessed earlier. The bill of entry was recalled and reassessed on 20 2 “the Customs Act” 3 “the Customs Tariff Act” 10 PART C February 2019 at 18:14 hours by levying customs duty at 200 per cent and IGST at 28 per cent, enhancing the duty from Rs 73,342/- to 8,10,952/-.

The Supreme Court, while considering the provisions of the Customs Act and the General Clauses Act held as follows:

“The situation at hand, operates on a landscape which is significantly altered by the regulatory regime in the electronic age where, both – uploading of notifications in the e-gazette and filing of bills of entry- are in the electronic form. As we have previously noted, Notification 5/2019 was uploaded in the e-gazette at a specific time and date and cannot apply to bills of entry which were presented on the customs automated EDI system prior to it, attracting the legal fiction set out in Regulation 4(2) of the 2018 Regulations.

Copy of judgment attached.

The Supreme Court had the occasion to consider a question as to what would be the consequence on the Employer and the Insurance Company in case of an accident where the validity of a driving license had expired. having expired. The claim made under the Workmen’s Compensation Act was rejected against the Insurance Company as the driver did not have a valid licence on the date of the accident. While the Supreme Court fixed the liability on the Insurance Company under the Workmen’s Compensation Act howoever held that under the Motor Vehicles Act, the employer has to, thus, bear responsibility and consequent liability of permitting the driver to drive with an expired licence over a period of three (3) years.

The Supreme Court further held that once the basic care of verifying the driving licence has to be taken by the employer, though a detailed enquiry may not be necessary, the owner of the vehicle would know the validity of the driving licence as is set out in the licence itself, it cannot be said that thereafter he can wash his hands off the responsibility of not checking up whether the driver has renewed the licence.

Kindly refer to the text of the judgment for complete details.

The Bombay Chamber of Commerce & Industry on behalf of its MSMEs members has prepared few recommendations to minimize the adverse implication of lock down of Industry in the wake of COVID-19.

A few urgent recommendations are as below:
a) Support from respective banks in paying Salary and Wages for next 2-3 months.
b) Auto extension and/or enhancement of working Limit viz. CC/OD facility with an additional 30% on current limits till the next FY year ending 31-03-2021 waiving any further collateral.
c) Since the organisations are locked, minimum charge of Electricity Bill should be waived.
d) Specific Relief announcements for MSME manufacturing sector towards super fast receivables from Corporates & Govt. Sectors to bridge cash flow deficit.
e) Support to temporary and low wage workers in the form of food coupons by the government.
f) The government support and incentives should be sector specific. The manufacturing sector to be impacted the most.
g) Since the cheque clearance system has stopped, many MSMEs will not have access to internet banking, there has to be a solution to this.
h) Rebate on Income Tax both corporate & personal to the tune of 50% of the accruals for FY 19-20 & 20-21 to set off losses arising due to lock down.
i) Rebate on the interests @ 50% on borrowing of all Business Loans taken by MSME from 15-03-2020 till Lock down period.
j) Govt. to clear all pending bills as early as possible.

Vide Notification dated 24th August 2020 the Companies (Corporate Social Responsibility Policy) Rules, 2014, rule 2, in sub-rule (1), in clause (e), the following proviso has been inserted, :-

“Provided that any company engaged in research and development activity of new vaccine, drugs and medical devices in their normal course of business may undertake research and development activity of new vaccine, drugs and medical devices related to COVID-19 for financial years 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23 subject to the conditions that-

(i) such research and development activities shall be carried out in collaboration with any of the institutes or organisations mentioned in item (ix) of Schedule VII to the Act.

(ii) details of such activity shall be disclosed separately in the Annual Report on CSR included in the Board’s Report”.

Kindly refer to the notification for complete details.

The ESIC has issued Circulars dated 4th June, 2020, 11th June, 2020 and 24th June, 2020 granting Medical benefits to Employees and Migrant workers covered under the ESIC Act for treatment of COVID 19.

i) Circular dated 4th June, 2020 – Special sanction for purchase of medicines from private Chemists and its subsequent reimbursement by ESIC. This scheme was introduced from 12th May, 2020 and has been extended till 31st July, 2020.

ii) Circular dated 11th June, 2020 – Provision of prompt medical services to ESIC beneficiaries even in suspected cases of COVID – 19 in ESIC hospitals, selected referred hospitals and availability of equipped ambulance services for transfer of sick patients on a very short notice.

iii) Circular dated 24th June, 2020 – Medical benefits to be given migrant workers covered under ESIC in a ESIC hospital nearest to their hometown.

To prevent spread of infection and to respond in a timely and effective manner in case suspect case of COVID-19 is detected so as to limit the spread of infection, the Ministry fo Health & Family Welfare has issued SOP dated 4th June 2020 for preventive and response measures to be observed to contain the spread of COVID-19 in office settings.
The document is divided into the following subsections
(i) Generic preventive measures to be followed at all times
(ii) Measures specific to offices
(iii) Measures to be taken on occurrence of case(s)
(iv) Disinfection procedures to be implemented in case of occurrence of suspect/confirmed case.

The Chamber deeply appreciates the direct tax measures announced and implemented by the Government intended to generate liquidity for the businesses and defer compliance deadlines amidst the difficulties caused by Covid-19.

The Taxation and Other Laws (Relaxation of Certain Provisions) Ordinance 2020 promulgated on 31 March 2020 relaxed the compliances becoming due during 20 March 2020 to 29 June 2020. While the due date for payment of taxes was not deferred, the Ordinance reduced the interest rate for delayed payments for taxes becoming due during the said period and paid by 30 June 2020 to 9% per annum instead of 12%/18% and also waived fees, penalties and prosecution for such delayed payments.

The Chamber had made representations on 7 April 2020 on certain direct tax and indirect tax measures related to Covid-19 for consideration of the Government.

As part of the first tranche of economic stimulus package, on 13 May 2020, the Hon’ble Finance Minister announced reduction in TDS rates on payments to residents (barring certain exceptions like salaries, statutory PF withdrawals, lottery winnings) by 25% for F.Y. 2020-21. This is intended to generate liquidity of Rs. 50,000 Cr for businesses. Further, announcements for extension of due dates for other matters like tax audit reports, return filing, completion of assessments and direct tax dispute resolution under Vivaad Se Vishwas Scheme were also made.

However, the Covid-19 lockdown got extended four times till 31 May 2020. Considering ever increasing number of Covid-19 positive cases day by day, it is expected that while there may be greater relaxations beyond 31 May 2020 to start the economic activities in the country, yet there are likely to be several constraints which will prevent businesses from operating at their full potential until a vaccine or cure is found for Covid-19. Such adverse conditions will prevail due to a combination of economic factors like reduced demand in the economy, non-availability of labour due to large scale migration to rural areas and public health safety measures like social distancing, reduced public transport, etc.

The industry appreciates the theme of ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan’ to make India self-reliant and is fully committed to achieve this object. The industry also appreciates that Covid-19 has severely impacted Government’s revenues and hence there is limited fiscal space available to further forego tax revenues through exemptions or deductions. But the industry requires support in the form of increased liquidity in the short term period at least till 31 March 2021 in order to survive the unprecedented human and economic crises due to Covid-19.

In this background, the Chamber would like to put forth certain representations on direct tax measures for consideration of the Government. These mainly include reduction of TDS rates by further 25%, waiving first advance tax instalment due on 15 June 2020, further reducing interest rate on delayed tax payments, liquidity support for salaried class having income upto Rs. 15 lakhs through reduced TDS, liberalisation and operationalising of Rule 30(3) for quarterly TDS payments, allowing OTP based submission of TDS/TCS returns, expeditiously releasing refunds to corporates and extending Work from Home relaxation for SEZ units till 31 March 2021. The detailed representations in relation to these measures are attached herewith.

The industry would deeply appreciate if its suggestions are favourably considered by the government to ease the liquidity problems faced by the industry due to unprecedented and extraordinary circumstances created by Covid-19 pandemic.

In a Petition filed by a Union of contract labour making a grievance of reduction in salary, the Bombay High court has, pending hearing and disposal of the Petition, held that the principle of ‘no work no wages’ would not apply in extraordinary circumstances like COVID 19. The Court observed that it cannot be insensitive to the plight of such workers, which has unfortunately befallen them on account of the Covid­19 pandemic.

In para 5 of the order, the Hon’ble High Court issued the following directions:

” In the meanwhile, the District Collector, Osmanabad, in his capacity as President of Respondent No.2 Trust/ Principal Employer, shall ensure that full wages, save and except food allowance and conveyance allowance (only with regard to the employees who are not required to report for duties), shall be isbursed by the contractors to the concerned employees for the months of March, April and May, 2020. The principle of “no work­ no wages” shall not be invoked until further orders in this petition. Needless to state, such payment of wages would be subject to the result of this petition or the proceedings before the Assistant Commissioner of Labour, Latur, which would progress only if the lockdown is completely lifted and free movement of citizens would be permitted.”