PMC decides to levy octroi on gold

The association office-bearers including Dajisaheb Gadgil, Fatehchand Ranka and Rajendra Shroff among others had put forth the demand that gold be excluded from octroi payment, pleading that it was not listed in the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) Schedule O’, which specifies the rules and percentage of octroi cess for various items.

But Kapoor referred to provisions in the Schedule O’ sections 112 and 73, which empower the PMC to levy octroi on all other articles not specified in the Schedule list and all types of metals and their articles respectively.

“We are firm on our decision since going by these provisions gold can be covered under all other articles or even under all types of metals. Gold is a metal and gold ornaments are its articles,” Kapoor maintained.

But the jewellers disagreed with him, Kapoor recalled and added that he had suggested an alternative requiring the association to voluntarily declare the annual turnovers of its members and ensure payment of octroi at 2.5 per cent to the PMC.

He was however not averse to exploring the feasibility of the association’s next demand that the PMC follow the example of Kolhapur Municipal Corporation, which levied octroi on the weight of gold instead of its worth in rupees.

A team of civic octroi officials would visit Kolhapur next week to gather information, though, the concept of charging octroi on the weight of a luxury item like gold was not acceptable to the municipal administration. Thereafter another round of talks would be held with the association sometime after May 16, according to the officer.

“We will study if it is possible to charge octroi that way after getting necessary information. In case it fits into the PMC’s Schedule O,’ we would seek legal opinion before finalising the modalities. But octroi will be levied on gold,” said Kapoor.

Unwarranted cases’
Additional Commissioner Deepak Kapoor on Friday said that he had complained to Additional Commissioner of Police M S Maheshgauri about the unwarranted filing of cases against Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) employees on duty in the wake of the alleged scuffle with city jeweller Fatehchand Ranka and his shop employees recently.

“The police had booked the civic employees performing their official duty under Indian Penal Code sections 143 nd 144, which amounted to unlawful assembly. The employees had not misbehaved, they were merely lifting the metal meshes belonging to the jeweller because they were obstructing traffic on busy Laxmi Road,” Kapoor told media persons.

The police action had an adverse effect on the morale of the employees who had refused to report on duty the next day of the incident. Representatives of the employees’ union had met him to lodge a strong protest. However, Kapoor was hopeful of resolving the the issue since Maheshgauri had assured him of looking into it.