Page 51 - GSTL_18th June 2020_Vol 37_Part 3

2020 ] NEWS DESK J85
Court was right in holding that transitional credit, being a valuable civil right,
can be enforced within a period of three years from the date of commencement of
limitation under the Limitation Act, 1963 and not within the 90 days’ time pre-
scribed in the special statue under the CGST Rules.
Cut-off date
The SLP posed another question whether the High Court’s finding that
the period of 90 days has no rationale and that the cut-off date provided for in
sub-rule (1A) of Rule 117 is arbitrary is erroneous in light of well settled legal
principle that cut-off dates are in realm of the Legislature/Executive to lay down
and the Courts, especially in fiscal statutes, should not interfere with such cut-off
dates.
“The date prescribed by the Delhi High Court based on the Limitation
Act is June 30, 2020 and as expected the SLP has been filed before this date. It
remains to be seen how the issue progresses especially in light of the retrospec-
tive amendment,” said Abhishek A. Rastogi, Partner at Khaitan & Co., who is
arguing the lead petition. Further, emphasis remains that it is a vested right and
the objectives of GST was seamless flow of credit and hence Article 300A of the
Indian Constitution cannot be ignored. This article says : “No person shall be
deprived of his property save by authority of law.”
Transitional credit refers to use of tax credit accumulated upto June 30,
2017, that is the last day of the erstwhile Central Excise and Services Tax regime.
After the introduction of GST, a special provision was made for credit accumu-
lated under VAT, Excise duty or Service Tax to be transited to GST. However,
this can be availed by submitting a form within the specified time-limit which
was extended till December 31, 2019.
[Source : Business Line, Chennai, dated 12-6-2020]

Bring PM CARES Fund under RTI, says plea
Petition in Delhi HC seeks transparency
A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition has been moved before the
Delhi High Court seeking greater transparency in the PM CARES Fund by bring-
ing it under the ambit of the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
The petition by Surender Singh Hooda cited recent newspapers reports
of the PM CARES Fund refusing to divulge information sought by one Harsha
Kundakarni under the RTI Act by claiming that the fund is not a ‘public authori-
ty’ within the ambit of Section 2(h) of the RTI Act, 2005.
“The reluctance of the trustees of the fund in divulging information as to
the management of the fund raises a profoundly serious apprehension since the
fund has been set up to fight COVID-19 which a public cause,” Mr. Hooda, who
is also a practising Advocate-on-Record at the Supreme Court, said.
The petition is likely to come up for hearing on June 10.
The PM CARES Fund was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi
on March 28 and he urged all Indians to donate to the fund to help the country
fight COVID-19.
“After two months, the total corpus of the fund stands at approximately
` 10,000 crore and the amount has been so collected upon strength of prestige
lent by the office of the Hon’ble Prime Minister,” the plea said.
GST LAW TIMES  18th June 2020  51