The yearly skirmish between Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) and local civic authorities over property tax entered the seventh year. On Friday, the Industrial Area Local Authority (IALA) and GHMC (Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation) served a notice to HCA, which manages the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Uppal, for failing to pay property tax dues. The officials from IALA, Uppal and East Zone, GHMC visited the stadium and handed the notice to the staff.
Property tax dues
According to the officials, the HCA has to pay property tax dues of Rs.14.26 crore to GHMC. The HCA has not paid the tax over the last six and a half years, said the GHMC officials.
However, they did not specify the deadline.
It may be recalled that in the past, the authorities threatened to seal the venue and not allow IPL matches to be held if the dues were not cleared. While 65% of the tax amount will go to IALA, Uppal, the GHMC will be the beneficiary of the rest of the tax amount.
A senior official of HCA, who did not want to be quoted, said that they were again approaching the State government to grant exemption in this regard. “We have already submitted a detailed memorandum to the government how different State associations across the country are given exemption for the stadia,” he pointed out.
“But, again, from the mood of the officials, this time around they seem to be very determined to collect a major chunk as property tax as per the strict guidelines,” the senior official pointed out.
“Yes, with the HCA Secretary K. John Manoj out of station and expected to be back on March 23, we are determined to resolve this issue amicably as the City is all set to host the IPL matches since it is the home venue for the Sunrisers Hyderabad (the first home game is on April 16 featuring SRH and Kolkata Knight Riders),” he explained. It is apparent that the HCA is clearly taken aback by Friday’s developments as it comes after a similar move by the Income Tax Department which attached its property in Shivar mandal of Nizamabad this February for not paying the dues amounting to Rs. 22.80 crore for the 5.4 acres of land it bought for construction of a stadium.
