M A I N   N E W S

Bindra walks out of meeting
Entertainment duty on Test match tickets
Prabhjot Singh
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 8
The National Games has run into serious crisis with the Secretary-General, Mr I.S. Bindra, walking out of a meeting of the Regional Committees at the PCA Stadium this afternoon.

The immediate provocation was a letter served by a special messenger of the Excise and Taxation Department, Ropar, conveying the decision of the department of rejection of the application of the Punjab Cricket Association for exemption from payment of excise duty on tickets for the coming India-England Test match.

Mr Bindra was not available for comment.

Sources reveal that Mr Bindra had agreed to be the Secretary-General of the Organising Committee of the National Games after being given an assurance by both the Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, and the Union Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister, Mr Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, who also happens to be the President of the Punjab Olympic Association, that holding of sports events in general and cricket in particular should be exempt from payment of any excise duty.

There was a total demoralisation in the OCNG after Mr Bindra left in a huff immediately after the letter was given to him.

The letter says that the PCA must charge 125 per cent excise duty on all tickets to be sold for the India-England Test match and the revenue so generated should be deposited with the State Government by the middle of December. The letter also asked the PCA to complete all account books in time and maintain proper record of the tickets sold.

The letter, according to sources, made Mr Bindra furious, who immediately left the meeting hall. Only on November 4 when the OCNG met at Ludhiana under the chairmanship of the Chief Minister, an assurance was reportedly given to the PCA that the coming Test match would be exempt from payment of entertainment duty.

There were emergency consultations as exercise started for damage control.

Sources in the Punjab Government revealed that a decision had already been taken in principle at the State Government level to exempt sporting events from payment of entertainment duty. “Governments cannot be run on entertainment duty collected from holding of a cricket match,” remarked an official.

It was an innocuous letter signed by the Assistant Excise and Taxation Commissioner, Ropar, today which was delivered to Mr Bindra by a special messenger, said a source, maintaining that this was a just cover-up letter in case the application for exemption was rejected.

The PCA officials, however, maintain that it was not an “innocuous letter” but a regular letter sent by an office who had no authority to take a policy decision especially when the application letter conveyed the decision taken at a meeting presided by the Governor and in the presence of the Chief Minister and the Chief Secretary. “How can an AETC overlook or overrule a decision of the State Government?,” they asked.

The OCNG sources admit that Mr Bindra had joined the committee on the sole condition that sporting events should be exempt from payment of entertainment duty and that this was the minimum the State could do to promote sports.

After Mr Bindra left, the OCNG meeting of Regional Committees to sort out administrative and other problems continued.

No official version of either the government or the OCNG was available.