TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2017 (PAGE 12) DAILY EXCELSIOR, JAMMU

SC seeks Govt stand on Rohingyas

NEW DELHI, Sept 4:

The Supreme Court todaysought to know the stand of theGovernment on a petition chal-lenging its decision to deportillegal Rohingya Muslim immi-grants back to Myanmar.

The matter came up before abench of Chief Justice DipakMisra and Justices A MKhanwilkar and D YChandrachud which askedAdditional Solicitor GeneralTushar Mehta to take instructionfrom the Centre about itsresponse to the petition whichhas challenged the decision onvarious grounds including that itviolated international humanright conventions.

While the bench posted thematter for September 11, advo-cate Prashant Bhushan, appear-ing for the two Rohingya immi-grants, wanted an assurance thatduring the pendency of the peti-tion, the Centre will not take anystep including deportation of theimmigrants.

The ASG made it clear thathe was not making any state-ment.

The bench asked the peti-tioner to hand over the copy ofthe petition and relevant docu-ments pertaining to the matter tothe law officer.

Violent attacks allegedly byMyanmarese armymen have ledto an exodus of Rohingya tribalsfrom the western Rakhine statein that country to India andBangladesh. Many of them, who

had fled to India after the earlierspate of violence, have settled inJammu, Hyderabad, Haryana,Uttar Pradesh, Delhi-NCR andRajasthan.

The plea, filed by twoRohingya immigrants,Mohammad Salimullah andMohammad Shaqir, who areregistered refugees under theUnited Nations HighCommission of Refugees(UNHCR), claimed they hadtaken refuge in India after escap-ing from Myanmar due to wide-spread discrimination, violenceand bloodshed against the com-munity there.

“Proposed deportation iscontrary to the constitutionalprotections of Article 14 (Rightto Equality), Article 21 (Right toLife and Personal Liberty) andArticle 51(c) of the Constitutionof India, which provides equalrights and liberty to every per-son.

“This act would also be incontradiction with the principleof ‘Non-Refoulement’, whichhas been widely recognised as aprinciple of CustomaryInternational Law,” the pleasaid, while seeking a direction tothe Government not to deportthem and other members ofRohingya community.

It has also sought a directionthat Rohingyas be provided“basic amenities to ensure thatthey can live in human condi-tions as required by internation-al law”. (PTI)

Last date for filing of GST returns for Jul, Aug extended

NEW DELHI, Sept 4: Businesses will have more

time to file the final GST returnsas the Government todayextended the last date for filingof sales and purchase data aswell as payment of taxes for themonths of July and August.

Now sales return or GSTR-1for July will have to be filed bySeptember 10 instead ofSeptember 5 earlier and pur-chase returns or GSTR-2 wouldbe filed by September 25 insteadof September 10 earlier.

GSTR-3, which is the matchof GSTR-1 and GSTR-2, willhave to be filed by September30, in place of September 15.

"GIC (GST Implementation

Committee) decides to extenddate of GSTR 1, GSTR 2 andGSTR 3 for the month of July to10th, 25th and 30th September2017, respectively," theGovernment said in a tweet.

With regard to August, thedate for filing GSTR-1, GSTR-2and GSTR-3 has been extendedto October 5, October 10 andOctober 15 from earlierSeptember 20, September 25and September 30, respectively.

The industry has beendemanding an extension of thedate of filing final GST returnsin view of scores of invoices tobe uploaded.

The Government will shortlyissue notification to extend the

date of filing returns.In the initial returns filed in

form GSTR-3B, taxes worth Rs92,283 crore were collected forJuly from just 64.42 per cent ofthe total taxpayer base.

Of the 59.57 lakh businesses,who should file return for July, asmany as 38.38 lakh taxpayersaccounting for 64.42 per cent of thetotal businesses who had registeredin July had filed their GST returns.

Through a notification lastweek, the Central Board ofExcise and Customs (CBEC)had waived fee for delayed filingof GSTR-3B and had allowedbusinesses to correct errors in theinitial return form while filingthe final returns. (PTI)

Gujarat model has “failed”,Cong to win next polls: Rahul

AHMEDABAD, Sept 4:

Congress vice presidentRahul Gandhi today said the rul-ing BJP and Prime MinisterNarendra Modi were “scared” of

the outcomeof the upcom-ing GujaratA s s e m b l ypolls as theirmuch-touted“model ofdevelopment”

in the state had “failed”.Addressing party workers

here, Gandhi exuded confidencethat the Congress, in oppositionin Gujarat for nearly twodecades, would come to powerafter the polls, likely to be heldlater this year.

“This time, I firmly believeno one can stop the Congressfrom forming the next govern-ment in Gujarat,” the 47-year-old Amethi MP said.

The Congress leader said theGujarat “model of development”stood thoroughly “exposed”.

“The BJP and PrimeMinister (Narendra Modi) arescared of the outcome of theGujarat Assembly polls. Youcannot hide the truth for long.The hollowness of the BJP’sGujarat model of developmenthas been exposed now,” he said.

Gandhi alleged the model

had not helped anyone “be it theYouth, farmers, small business-men or shopkeepers”.

Only some 5-10 people ben-efited from it, Gandhi said with-out taking names.

Attacking Modi, Gandhi saidhis government was putting“undue pressure” on the media.“We know that Modiji is pres-suring the media. Even somemedia persons have told me thatthey are scared,” he claimed.

He asked party workers tofight against the BJP at the boothlevel and expose the saffron out-fit’s “lies”.

“You have so many issuesfor this election such as hard-ships being faced by farmers,demonetisation, GST and unem-ployment. Our workers willfight against BJP at the boothlevel and expose their lies,” hesaid.

The event at the SabarmatiRiverfront — a waterfront onthe banks of the Sabarmati —was an outreach programme forworkers.

At the event named“Samvad” (dialogue), Gandhiinteracted with party workersand answered questions sent tohim in advance by them.

Gujarat Congress presidentBharatsinh Solanki read out thequestions and the party vicepresident answered them. (PTI)

Moin Qureshi’s EDcustody extended by4 days in PMLA case

NEW DELHI, Sept 4:The Enforcement

Directorate, which has beenquestioning controversial meatexporter Moin Akhtar Qureshisince August 26, was todayallowed by a city court to con-tinue quizzing him for fourmore days in a money launder-ing probe against him and oth-ers.

Special Judge ArunBharadwaj extended the cus-tody of the accused by fourmore days after the probeagency said he could not bequizzed in the last few days dueto holidays and in the light ofrequests received from variouswitnesses.

The ED sought Qureshi’scustody for five more days say-ing he was yet to be confrontedwith more government servantsand the details of propertiespurchased from the crime pro-ceeds.

“More hawala dealers are tobe questioned and there arelengthy statements of bankaccounts which are to be furtherinvestigated from the partieswith whom transactions werecarried out by the accused,” theED said, adding that Qureshiwas also to be confronted withaudio data obtained from theIncome Tax Department. (PTI)