Commercial complex found guilty of evading water tax: Minister

Bangalore, Nov 21 (UNI) A Commercial complex housing a multinational software company was found guilty of evading water tax to the tune of over Rs six crore, Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Minister Katta Subramanyam Naidu said here today.

Speaking to newspersons here, he said the BWSSB officials of the newly constituted Revenue Enhance and Detection Cell had detected the tax evasion.

The building, with more than 1,40,000 sq m of built-up area, was paying the pro rata charge for Water and Sanitation connection for only 40,000 sq m since 2006, he said.

Stating that the penal provisions of the existing BWSSB Act 1964 lacked adequate power to recover the revenue loss from the guilty, he said to overcome the problem the State Government was contemplating to bring an amendment to add stringent provisions to the Act.

The minister said the BWSSB officials had estimated that a tax evasion of over Rs 100 crore annually was going on in connivance with the department staff.

''As many as 85,000 illegal water connections were found particularly in slum areas of the city'' he said.

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