LUCKNOW: The Lucknow Municipal Corporation has served a notice on Ekana Cricket Stadium administration directing it to deposit Rs 3.28 crore as the property’s commercial tax outstanding since 2020.
The notice was served on Friday, just nine days before the stadium is to host the second T20 international match between India and New Zealand on January 29. The tax arrears were detected during a GIS (Geographical Information System) survey commissioned by the LMC, the report of which was compiled a fortnight ago.
The GIS survey has revealed that the stadium – spread across 35 acres of land near Shaheed Path in Gomtinagar – has not registered for commercial tax ever since it came under the LMC’s jurisdiction in 2020.
Tax collection is a major source of revenue for the LMC and efforts will be made to collect the arrears at the earliest. If the dues are not cleared, strict action will be initiated as per the law,” municipal commissioner Inderjit Singh said. Chief taxation officer (CTO), LMC, Ashok Singh, said according to the GIS survey report, Ekana authorities should pay Rs 1.64 crore per year as commercial tax. “As per the defined rules, the stadium administration will have to pay commercial tax for two financial years –2020- 2021 and 2021- 2022.
The total amounts to around Rs 3.28 crore,” he said. “We have served a notice for the arrears to the stadium administration on Friday asking them to clear the outstanding amount. The stadium administration has raised an objection saying that the assessment has been done wrongly. They have 30 days from the day of serving the notice to clarify their stand, else, action will follow,” he said. Ekana Sports City‘s chief managing director Uday Sinha confirmed that LMC had issued a notice to the stadium. “I got the notice but the assessment is incorrect as the stadium was built on both government and private property on private-public partnership (PPP) model.
In such a situation, the assessment should be done of the private property and not of the stadium as a whole,” he said. “We will pay the commercial tax of private land. I have already raised an objection and we will pay the tax when the assessment is rectified,” he added. According to the LMC, the GIS survey was introduced in 2019 in view of problems that surfaced during assessment of area of a property for taxation purposes. The survey involves the analysis of geographically referenced information of a property available digitally
The notice was served on Friday, just nine days before the stadium is to host the second T20 international match between India and New Zealand on January 29. The tax arrears were detected during a GIS (Geographical Information System) survey commissioned by the LMC, the report of which was compiled a fortnight ago.
The GIS survey has revealed that the stadium – spread across 35 acres of land near Shaheed Path in Gomtinagar – has not registered for commercial tax ever since it came under the LMC’s jurisdiction in 2020.
Tax collection is a major source of revenue for the LMC and efforts will be made to collect the arrears at the earliest. If the dues are not cleared, strict action will be initiated as per the law,” municipal commissioner Inderjit Singh said. Chief taxation officer (CTO), LMC, Ashok Singh, said according to the GIS survey report, Ekana authorities should pay Rs 1.64 crore per year as commercial tax. “As per the defined rules, the stadium administration will have to pay commercial tax for two financial years –2020- 2021 and 2021- 2022.
The total amounts to around Rs 3.28 crore,” he said. “We have served a notice for the arrears to the stadium administration on Friday asking them to clear the outstanding amount. The stadium administration has raised an objection saying that the assessment has been done wrongly. They have 30 days from the day of serving the notice to clarify their stand, else, action will follow,” he said. Ekana Sports City‘s chief managing director Uday Sinha confirmed that LMC had issued a notice to the stadium. “I got the notice but the assessment is incorrect as the stadium was built on both government and private property on private-public partnership (PPP) model.
In such a situation, the assessment should be done of the private property and not of the stadium as a whole,” he said. “We will pay the commercial tax of private land. I have already raised an objection and we will pay the tax when the assessment is rectified,” he added. According to the LMC, the GIS survey was introduced in 2019 in view of problems that surfaced during assessment of area of a property for taxation purposes. The survey involves the analysis of geographically referenced information of a property available digitally
