CAG report pulls up Maha govt, civic agencies on land use

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has pulled up Maharashtra government and two civic agencies for not taking adequate steps to recover lease dues from big corporate houses such as Reliance Industries Ltd and Jet Airways.
RIL and Jet Airways were allotted land by Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (MMRDA) in the new business district of Bandra-Kurla Complex but they failed to complete construction work in prescribed time mentioned in the lease agreement, CAG has observed.
As per the lease agreement these companies signed with MMRDA, they were required to pay an additional lease premium equivalent to 10 per cent of the original lease premium if they failed to complete construction in time, it said.

The CAG report, "Performance audit on government land given on lease", was tabled in the state legislature today, the last day of its monsoon session.
Despite these companies' failure to complete construction work in time, MMRDA did not take any step to recover additional lease premium amount, which resulted in a loss of Rs 272.36 crore to MMRDA, the report said, adding nearly Rs 200 crore are due from RIL alone.
Bennett, Coleman and Company Ltd (BCCL)'s 99-year lease ended in 2000, CAG said. Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) fixed the lease amount at Rs.1.18 crore per year but BCCL challenged the decision in the Bombay High Court, it said.

The court ruled in 2003 that MCGM should appoint an officer who will decide the lease amount after hearing the lessee (BCCL) and in the interim BCCL should pay lease amount of Rs 50 lakh per annum, the report said.