Octroi worth over Rs. 400 crore pending with wine shops in Thane
17 Dec, 2013
An application was filed with the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) under the Right to Information (RTI) Act seeking to get the details of octroi evaders as per corporation's records who were issued recovery notices in 2011 for failing to pay the amount.
The reply to the application states that the corporation imposed a 10-fold penalty on the base octroi evaded by 273 wine shops. The TMC was able to collect only Rs. 3.75 crore as single octroi till March, 2012. The amount collected by the corporation was Rs. 6.58 crore by march, 2013. The reply says that the total outstanding yet to be recovered stands at around Rs. 407 crore. The reply also states that notices have been issued to more than 270 defaulters to get their dues clear with interest and penalty. However, only a small fraction of this paid their basic levy without penalties and the other defaulters completely ignored the notices.
The RTI applicants claimed that despite failure of wine shops to comply with the corporation's notices, no stern action was taken by the corporation authorities. They have written to the municipal commissioner and the chief of the then octroi wing in this regard.
Octroi has been abolished in April, 2013 and has been replaced by local body tax (LBT).