The Finance Ministry Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday made a big announcement and gave a relief to the Non-Resident Indians (NRI) who are stranded in India due to the lockdown in the country. The Finance Minster in their announcement gave relief to those who are facing difficulty with the status and has to file tax returns as Indian residents.
This will help an individual to maintain Non-Resident Indian (NRI) Status.
According to the Ministry, as the lockdown continues during the financial year 2020-21 and it is not yet clear as to when international flight operations would resume, a circular excluding the period of stay of these individuals up to the date of normalisation of international flight operations, for determination of the residential status for the financial year 2020-21 shall be issued after flights resume.
To this effect, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the apex policy making body for direct taxes has decided that that for the purposes of determining the residential status under section 6 of the Act during the previous year 2019-20 in respect of an individual who has come to India on a visit before 22nd March, 2020 and has been unable to leave India on or before March 31, 2020, his period of stay in India from March 22 to March 31 will not be taken into account.
If such individual has been quarantined here on account of Covid-19 on or after March 1, 2020 and has departed on an evacuation flight on or before March 31, 2020 or has been unable to leave India on or before March 31, 2020, his period of stay from the beginning of his quarantine to his date of departure or March 31, 2020, as the case may be, will not be taken into account. Alternatively, if such individual has departed on an evacuation flight on or before March 31, 2020, his period of stay in India from March 22, 2020 to his date of departure shall not be taken into account.
It may be noted that, there are number of individuals who had come on a visit to India during the previous year 2019-20 for a particular duration and intended to leave India before the end of the previous year for maintaining their status as non-resident or not ordinary resident in India.
