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Bombay Leaks Desk
Mumbai : As it has been revealed that the Anil Ambani owned Reliance Energy had collected Rs 1452 crores from its customers on Account of Electricity surcharge and Electricity sales tax and has not paid the same to the govt, now the moot questions that has emerged after Gautam Adani’s takeover of Reliance Energy as to who will pay the tax dues to the govt. M/s Reliance Energy owned by Anil Ambani had collected from its consumers on account of Electricity surcharge and Electricity sales tax on the utilised units to a tune of Rs 1452 crores, but has not paid the amount collected to the government treasury. Now that this company has been purchased by Gautam Adani there is no clarity on who has to pay the govt it’s dues.
In a shocking revelations through his RTI query, Activist Anil Galgali has come to know that Anil Ambani owned M/s Reliance Energy has not paid Electricity Duty and other taxes amounting to Rs 1,452 crore to the government of Maharashtra which it recovered from the customers. The electric distribution arm of the Junior Ambani recovered this amount of Rs 14,51,69,15,200 from its customers during the month of Oct 2016 to October 2017 and has not transferred this money in government’s exchequer,” RTI has unearthed.
RTI Activist Anil Galgali had sought to know the status of electricity duty and electricity tax paid to the government of Maharashtra by the Reliance Energy after it recovered from the customers. The reply furnished by the Electricity Inspector of Santacruz division Minakshi Wathore stated that ever since in June this year electricity tax branch was opened, Reliance have recovered Rs 591,50,53,500 in last five months from June 2017 to October 2017 in the different heads of Electricity Duty, electricity Tax, Toss and Green Cess as per prescribed rate. But fail to transfer to Govt. While electricity Inspector at Mumbai Central division informed Galgali that from Oct 2016 to May 2017 in the different heads of Electricity Duty, electricity Tax, Toss and Green Cess, Reliance has recovered Rs 860,18,61,700 from the customers but yet to transfer the money to the government.
Commenting over the brazen violation of not paying the duty to the government on time, Galgali said that when he filed the RTI query with the Govt, then the officials woke up and issued notice to the company to pay the duty. According to Galgali, Minakshi Wathore issued instructions to the General Manager of Reliance to pay the duty on Novermber 3 & Mumbai Division issue show cause notice to Reliance.
However, Anil Galgali has written a letter to the Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and demanded stern action against not only the Reliace company, but also against the earring officials. In a letter Galgali had demanded that the government should conduct an audit on the Reliance Energy’s bank account and freeze the bank account to recover the dues and also should not approve the sale of Reliance Energy till the taxes are paid. Paying no heed to the demand the government has sat silent and in the meanwhile Reliance has been sold to Adani hurriedly by Ambani and has exited himself. The govt should now seek clarity from Adani and Ambani on who will be paying the government dues, demanded Galgali.
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