| Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day's biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. We hope you are staying safe. Income Tax returns filing deadline for FY20 extended till December 31 To provide more time to taxpayers for furnishing Income Tax Returns (ITR) pertaining to financial year 2019-20, the government has further extended the due date for furnishing of Income-Tax Returns. The deadline for businesses to file annual Goods and Services Tax (GST) returns and reconciliation statements for the financial year 2018-19 has also been extended from October 31, 2020 to December 31, 2020. The government said it had received a number of pleas for the extension in view of the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown, and the GST Council had also recommended that taxpayers be granted more time to comply. For taxpayers who need to get their accounts audited or furnish reports on specific domestic or international transactions, the deadline is now January 31, 2021. For the rest, it has been extended to December 31, 2020 from the earlier limit of November 30. "Further, in order to provide relief to small and middle class taxpayers…the due date for payment of self-assessment tax for the taxpayers whose self-assessment tax liability is up to ₹1 lakh had been extended to November 30, 2020," the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said in a statement on Saturday, adding that these deadlines have been extended again. The due date for payment of self-assessment tax for these taxpayers has now been extended to January 31, 2021 for those who need to furnish audited accounts or report specified transactions. For the rest, the deadline has been extended to to December 31, 2020. Farooq Abdullah named chairman of People's Alliance for Gupkar Declaration; Mehbooba Mufti to be deputy National Conference president Farooq Abdullah was on Saturday unanimously chosen as the chairman of the recently-floated People's Alliance for Gupkar Declaration while PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti will be his deputy, the amalgam said. CPI(M) leader Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami is the convenor of the alliance, while Sajad Lone of People's Conference has been named as the spokesperson. The amalgam leaders, who met at the residence of Mufti for the first time after its formation, adopted the flag of the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir as its symbol.  Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Ministers Farooq Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti pose for the media after meeting in Srinagar on October 24, 2020. The alliance will come out with a white paper within a month on governance in Jammu and Kashmir since the abrogation of Article 370, Lone told reporters after the meeting. "The white paper will not be rhetoric. It will be based on facts and figures to present the reality to the people of Jammu and Kashmir and around the country," Lone said. The alliance also decided to hold its next meeting after a fortnight in Jammu, followed by a convention in Srinagar on November 17. Congress shows 'selective outrage' in cases of crimes against women, says Nirmala Sitharaman The BJP on Saturday accused the Congress of employing "selective outrage" in cases of crimes against women, and questioned the silence of Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra over the alleged rape and murder of a six-year-old girl in Punjab. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, at a presser at the BJP's national headquarters in New Delhi, also took a swipe at Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav, questioning if he had asked Gandhi about the issue while holding a joint poll campaign with him in the State. She also noted that the child hailed from the Dalit community. Attacking Yadav, she referred to a news report of 2008 to mention the "allegations of eve-teasing and misbehaviour with women against the RJD brothers," a reference to him and his elder brother Tej Pratap. "It [the Punjab incident] may not hurt the RJD because that is how things were when they were in power," Sitharaman said, adding that the RJD presided over "Jungle Raj" during its rule between 1990-2005.  Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman addresses a press conference in New Delhi on October 24, 2020. Hitting out at the Congress, she said, "The pretentious Congress has not said a word. The tweet-friendly Rahul Gandhi has not tweeted on the Hoshiarpur incident. There has been no outrage. And no picnic either." Her 'picnic' jibe was in reference to Gandhi and Gandhi's visit to Hathras in BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh following the alleged gangrape of a Dalit girl, who died in a Delhi hospital subsequently. "The Congress party should stand up and answer. Does this kind of selective outrage suit the stature of their party? Why is the brother-sister pair not going and voicing horror in Hoshiarpur? Why not in Rajasthan? The selective cry of outrage that the Congress wants to show when it is elsewhere but not in States governed by it is completely exposed," Sitharaman said. In response to Sitharaman's comments, Gandhi tweeted, "Unlike in UP, the governments of Punjab and Rajasthan are NOT denying that the girl was raped, threatening her family and blocking the course of justice. If they do, I will go there to fight for justice…" In a horrifying incident, a six-year-old girl was allegedly raped, killed and then set on fire, with her half-burnt body found at a home in Tanda's Jalalpur village, police said on Thursday. Centre lays out modalities of compound interest scheme on loans up to ₹2 crore Three weeks after informing the Supreme Court that the Centre would bear the additional compound interest on loans of up to ₹2 crore availed by retail borrowers as well as micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), the government formally communicated the modalities of the scheme to lenders on Friday. Banks and other lenders, including co-operative banks and non-banking finance companies, have been asked to credit the difference between the compound interest and simple interest for the six month period between March 1 and August 31 into these loan accounts by November 5. This would be implemented even for borrowers who had not availed the moratorium on loan repayments allowed by the RBI up to August 31. At its last hearing on October 14, the Supreme Court had turned down the Centre's request for a month to implement a scheme to ensure that borrowers with loans of up to ₹2 crore won't have to bear compound interest on the interest dues accruing on their loans during the moratorium period.  Photo for representation. The apex court, which had been hearing petitions seeking an extension of the six month moratorium granted by the RBI on loan repayments, had given the Centre time till November 2 and said "the common man's Diwali is now in the government's hands". "In view of the unprecedented and extreme COVID-19 situation, the object of the scheme is to provide ex-gratia payment of difference between compound interest and simple interest by ways of relief for the period from March 1, 2020 to August 31, 2020, to borrowers in specified loan accounts," the Finance Ministry said in its communique laying out the scheme's contours. Covid Watch: Numbers and Developments The number of reported coronavirus cases from India stood at 78,52,623 at the time of publishing this newsletter, with the death toll at 1,18,437. Former Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday said in a tweet that he has tested positive for Covid-19 and asked those who have come in contact with him to get themselves tested. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. | 
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