HC reprieve for MMOPL over BMC’s tax demand

MMOPL has approached the HC in response to the BMC’s notice demanding payment of nearly ₹300 crore as property tax failing which the services would be discontinued

Mumbai In a relief for the Mumbai Metro One Private Limited (MMOPL), the Bombay High Court on Tuesday asked the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) not to take any coercive action with regards the water supply and sewerage lines on the Versova-Ghatkopar Metro line.

The court has directed the state and the BMC to reply to the petition within two weeks and posted further hearing of the petition after three weeks (HT File)

MMOPL has approached the HC in response to the BMC’s notice demanding payment of nearly ₹300 crore as property tax failing which the services would be discontinued. The court has directed the state and the BMC to reply to the petition within two weeks and posted further hearing of the petition after three weeks.

The division bench headed by justice A A Sayed was informed by senior advocate Venkatesh Dhond for MMOPL that the BMC was wrongly demanding property tax from it though the government had granted it exemption under the Central Metro Act and the Railway Act. The petition claimed that the demand was illegal, malafide, arbitrary and in brazen breach of provisions of law.

The MMOPL approached the HC seeking quashing of the warrants of attachment issued by BMC and also sought a stay on the implementation of the warrants.

On March 24, a team of civic officials visited multiple properties of MMOPL, including the DN Nagar Metro station, in order to disconnect the water supply and sewage lines, which is a regular action taken by BMC officials against tax defaulters. However, they did not disconnect the lines and said they gave the MMOPL two days’ time to clear the dues.

The petition states that MMOPL had requested the BMC to withdraw the notices issued to them and implement the directives of the state government which exempts MMOPL from paying property and municipal taxes. The petition further states that as the BMC did not withdraw the attachment warrant, it had to approach the HC.

On its part, the BMC submitted that as MMOPL was a private entity it could not claim any tax exemption and it had to pay some amount as property tax.

Seeking responses from state and BMC, the HC posted hearing of MMOPL’s petition after three weeks.

After the Bombay HC’s issued an interim stay, a senior BMC official requesting anonymity said, “The court has directed us not to disconnect the sewage and water lines considering it will only create problem for the common people who avail metro service daily. The HC has also maintained that they don’t have any problem about us attaching the MMOPL’s properties. We will be following the court’s order .”

Officials said that the Mumbai Metro One Private Limited (MMOPL) owes ₹300 crore to the BMC and earlier on March 11, the BMC had attached as many as 18 properties of MMOPL in the Andheri East and Andheri West areas, including nine metro stations.