Dheerowal barriers auctioned for Rs 1.81 cr

Tribune News Service

Solan, January 15

The six inter-state barriers of the Dheerowal unit in Nalagarh were re-auctioned for Rs 1.81 crore on Monday evening as against the reserve price of Rs 2.10 crore causing a loss of Rs 29 lakh to the state exchequer.

Additional Excise and Taxation Commissioner Harbans Singh Brascon said five parties had participated in the bidding, which took place at Baddi and Rana Enterprises was awarded the bid at Rs 1.81 crore.

The successful re-auction has also come as a relief to the 11 under-training Assistant State Tax and Excise Officers who had been entrusted the task of collecting toll tax from these barriers since January 9.

These barriers have been auctioned for the remaining 75 days of this financial year. The staff of the Excise and Taxation Department had earlier taken over these barriers on January 9, as the earlier contractor Sai Associates had only deposited Rs 3,96,20,000 as against the Rs 9,38,33,250 till December 2018.

The laxity in recovering the monthly instalments has caused the state exchequer dear and not even 50 per cent of the toll has been deposited by the contractor. It was surprising why the field staff had failed to ensure timely deposition of the monthly instalments, though the toll tax was collected till January 8. With little accountability of the field staff, the toll tax collection has failed to fetch the desired revenue to the department from this industrial belt, which houses 89 per cent of the state’s industry.