Sahara's Aamby Valley gets breather

Sahara Group owned Aamby Valley got a breather from local government officials as the group made partial payment of Rs 1 crore and deposited two post dated cheque of Rs 50 lakh (dated on March 10) and Rs 2.32 crore (dated on March 28).

Aamby Valley, a township developed by the Sahara group in Lonavala, Pune, was sealed for a few hours by the Mulshi Taluka Tahsildar for non-payment of dues. The authorities had to resort to such an action due to non-payment of agricultural tax of Rs 4.82 crore for the period of August 2015 –March 2016.

"The company has agreed to pay all the dues in two installments. Sahara has already made the payment of Rs 1 crore and we have also received two post dated cheque of balance payment. These arrears were due from August 2015. We had already issued them the notices from time to time. But the dues were not paid and so we sealed the property,” said Prashant Dhage, tahasildar, Maval Region. He further added that with the payment of the dues the property has been released.

 

Sahara in a statement said, "The non payment of of non-agriculture tax is only of Rs 27 lakh as of today because the other dues aggregating to Rs 2,26 crore will only be liable for payment by the closure of current Financial year i.e March 31, 2016, therefore we still have 30 days left for payment. In the given circumstances, the intent of the company has been clear and forthright. We made payment of Rs 4.25 crore. For the Financial Year 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 and the outstanding is only of Rs.27 lakh for the said period."

Recently, an Indian regulator found that nearly Rs 15 billion had been pumped into the project to keep it afloat. Sahara has ploughed in Rs 1,500 crore ($221 million) from two of its credit cooperatives into the Aamby Valley resort project through investments in preference shares, according to documents filed with companies regulator.

Spread over 4,000 hectares (10,000 acres) in the hills of western India, Aamby Valley claims to be India's first planned city since independence: a sprawling resort of luxury chalets, manmade lakes and an airport, favoured by the business elite and Bollywood stars.