Civic body seals hotel for not paying property tax

The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) today sealed 'Orchid Hotel' for not paying property tax of over Rs 16 crore between 2008 and 2016, a senior official said.
According to the PMC's property tax department, Rs 16.28 core property tax is not paid by the hotel owned by the Kamat Hotels group since 2008.
"Multiple notices and reminders were sent to the defaulters--Varadkant Srinivas Kamat and BW Highways Star--and they were asked to pay the dues but to no avail," said PMC administrative officer Girish Patki.
He said currently the civic body is running a scheme in which Rs 4.6 crore concession too was offered to the tax payers and they were allowed to pay Rs 11.67 crore, however, they remained non-responsive.

"After all the efforts of recovery of the dues failed, we finally sealed the gates of the hotel this evening," Patki added.
Orchid Hotel was formerly known as BW Highway Star, and is a subsidiary of Kamat Hotels.
Despite repeated attempts, the company could not be contacted for comment.