Auction threat imperils Taj fest

With just over 10 days left for the 15th annual Taj Mahotsava to begin on February 18, the fest is in deep trouble with the Agra Municipal Corporation preparing to auction a major part of the Shilp Gram for the recovery of property taxes, accumulated over the past 15 years.

The Shilp Gram, which belongs to the UP government's industry department, had been taken over by the UP tourism department 15 years ago, to run tourism-centric activities centred around the Taj Mahotsava, conceptualised jointly by the local tourism industry and the state's tourism department.

According to the Agra Municipal Commissioner Shyam Singh, ever since it took possession of the Shilp Gram, the tourism department had not paid the municipal taxes applicable on such a large tract of land, despite regularly holding commercial activities, which categorised this land as commercial property.

Singh said the tourism department had been sent several reminders to pay the taxes but they remained unpaid, and as a result, the default was of Rs 20 lakh.

Recently, he said it was decided in a board meeting of the Municipal Corporation that the taxes might be recovered by selecting and auctioning a part of the Shilp Gram which had a value of Rs 20 lakh.

He said the area for auction had been marked by the municipal engineers and it would be held soon.

According to Singh, this was not the only case in which an establishment connected with the tourism industry had been found to be a major defaulter of municipal taxes.

The Hotel Mughal Sheraton, a five-star hotel of Agra, had been found to be a tax defaulter by almost Rs 5.5 crore this year and a number of other star hotels of the town would be shortly falling in the tax net for not paying taxes.

Meanwhile, reacting to the Municipal Corporation's action against the Shilp Gram, Nawab Kazim Ali, chairman, UP Tourism Development Corporation, said this was a very serious issue in which a state government department's land was being taxed by a municipality and he would be shortly holding discussions at high levels in the government on this.