Polytechnic College owes Rs 1.75 cr dues for last 28 years
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Vijayawada: Educational institutions including schools, colleges and charity trusts, churches and others are among the top property tax defaulters. Polytechnic College, a government organisation, allegedly is the top defaulter among educational institutions with a due of Rs 1.75 crore for the last 28 years. The college has a due of RS 1.91 crore in the form of interest to the actual amount payable.
Similarly, other government educational institutions like Industrial Training Institute, Basic Training Centre are due to pay more than half a crore to the local body. However, as per the section 85 of AP Municipal Act, building used by philanthropic institutions need not pay the property tax and education institutions which are run by charitable organisations are also included in it.
However, only schools are included so far and government aided colleges that provide education on no profit basis are still forced to pay property tax. “We are still paying property tax. Decades ago all government-aided institutions including schools and colleges are exempted from paying property tax. Later it was confined to schools only. We charge only Rs 2000 per student per year and are facing lack of property faculty,” said secretary of Syed Appalswamy College Mr Jayaprakash Rampillai.
Mr Jayaprakasah further said that representatives of education institutions would meet chief minister on October 8 and demand for removal of property tax. While institutions like rehabilitation, orphans, streetchildren, religious places and public grounds are also exempted from property tax; properties owned by religious institutions have to pay the tax.
APSRTC too owes Rs 2 crore:
Several state and central government organisations have topped the list of tax defaulters with the pending amount exceeding Rs 20 crore in form of vacant land tax (VLT) and commercial taxes. Also, private organisations, associations, educational institutions have found entry in the list of tax defaulters, according to the data uploaded on the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation website, ourvmc.org.
The state government’s largest organisation, APSRTC, has approximately Rs 2 crore pending in the form of VLT for its lands at Vidydharapuram. However, the corporation seems to be in no mood to clear the pending taxes at present. Apart from APSRTC, among others Punnami hotels run by AP Tourism, government colleges, post offices, BSNL central office at Chuttugunta and KR Market, road and buildings department in Labbipet, Polytechnic College, were also in the defaulters’ list.
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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