Bhopal: The office of divisional railway manager in Bhopal is confused whether to pay service tax worth Rs 20 crore to Bhopal Municipal Corporation or to seek exemption.
Bhopal DRM Shobhun Chowdhary has written a letter to headquarter in Jabalpur whether it should pay the tax to BMC. The DRM office is of the view that a government organisation like railways need not pay tax to another government entity.
“We are unclear over the status of the service tax. We are trying to ascertain whether the tax is to be paid,” Shobhun Chowdhary said. He said that it sounds bizarre that a government firm is paying tax to another government firm. “We are awaiting the reply from there after which we will respond to BMC’s tax demand. If required, the headquarters will communicate it to railway ministry,” he added.
The BMC staff is deployed to clean railway platforms, maintain sewers and install streetlights in railway colonies for which the civic body charges service tax from railways.
Deputy municipal commissioner Archana Sharma said that several letters have been sent to DRM office to for getting tax dues. “We hope to recover dues from it soon,” she said.
The BMC’s bid to recover tax dues comes in wake of the fact that Corporation is facing financial crunch. On Friday, a meeting was also held at the ISBT campus in which stress was laid on collection of revenue and taxes.
