The financial year has not been extended till June this year in view of the coronavirus outbreak, the Finance Ministry said on Monday, refuting media reports.
“There is a fake news circulating in some section of media that the financial year has been extended. A notification issued by the Government of India on 30th March 2020 with respect to some other amendments done in the Indian Stamp Act is being misquoted. There is no extension of the financial year,” the Finance Ministry said in a statement.
The statement came after reports said that the government had extended the current fiscal by three months to make it a 15-month financial year to help industry cope with the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The reports claimed that an official notification said the 2020-21 fiscal will start from July 1, 2020 instead of April 2020.
Officials said a gazette notification issued late on Monday evening was about the date of applicability of stamp duty which has been changed from April 1 to July 1.
There have been demands in business circles for the extension of the fiscal year by three months in view of the economic impact caused by outbreak of COVID-19.
While the government has not yet responded to the request, last week Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman unveiled a Rs 1.7 lakh-crore fiscal stimulus package to help the poor and migrant workers.
Share markets ended lower on Monday as coronavirus cases in Asia’s third-largest economy rose to over a thousand, stoking concerns about the impact to businesses and growth.
Investor caution has remained even after the Reserve Bank of India on Friday announced a slew of measures to cushion the economic impact from the virus, including a 75 basis-point rate cut.
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