The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on Friday has issued a notification to allow cash payments of over Rs 2 lakh for the treatment of COVID-19 patients at hospital, nursing homes, COVID care centres or other similar medical facilities.”The Central Government, in exercise of powers conferred by clause (iii) of Proviso to Section 269ST of the Income-tax Act, 1961, hereby specifies Hospitals, Dispensaries, Nursing Homes COVID care centres or other similar medical facilities providing COVID treatment to patients for the purpose of Section 269ST of the Income-tax Act for payment received in cash during 1.04.2021 to 31.05.2021…,” the statement by CBDT mentioned. Introduced by the Cental government in 2017 as a measure to curb black money, the Section 269ST of the Income Tax Act used to restricts any person from receiving an amount of Rs two lakh or more in cash, from a person in a day, in respect of a single transaction or in respect of transactions relating to one event or occasion from a person. Recently, Manisha Gupta filed a petition in Delhi High Court seeking suspension of Section 269ST of the Income Tax Act.
The relaxation has been granted for payments received in cash between April 1 and May 31 “on obtaining the PAN or Aadhaar of the patient and the payee and the relationship between the patient and the payee” by such hospitals or COVID care centres.
This latest move was aimed to remove the hardship being faced by relatives and caregivers of coronavirus infected patients who visit the hospitals for treatment.
Earlier, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has asked the insurance companies to settle health insurance claims within an hour. In a circular to all general and health insurers, IRDAI has mentioned that the decision on authorization for cashless treatment for COVID-19 claims shall be communicated to the network provider (hospital) within a period of 60 minutes from the time of receipt of authorization request along with all necessary requirements from the hospital. The health insurance companies must communicate the decision on final discharge of patients covered in COVID-19 claims to the network provider within a period of one hour from the time of receipt of final bill along with all necessary requirements from the hospital, IRDAI noted.
“The insurers are advised to process such requests promptly so that both authorization for cashless treatment and discharge of the patient can be hastened to the maximum extent,” the regulator mentioned.
India reported 4,01,078 fresh COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, according to the data released by ministry of health and family welfare. With this, the total number of active COVID-19 patients in the country reached 37,23,446. As many as 4,187 people succumbed to death due to coronavirus infection in the last 24 hours. At least 3,18,609 people discharged from the hospital on Saturday, the health ministry said.
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