PANAJI: State govt informed the high court of Bombay at Goa on Monday that there are a total of 46 cases of underassessment of fees by the town and country planning department.
Division bench of Justices M S Karnik and Nivedita Mehta is hearing a PIL alleging that the TCP underassessed fees for conversion under Section 17(2), causing a loss of crores of rupees to the exchequer.
Advocate general Devidas Pangam told the HC that it found 46 beneficiaries of zone change where the fees were underassessed and submitted a list to the court. He said letters were issued to the parties for recovery.
A copy was also provided to the petitioners, who were asked to go through the list and see whether any more cases of underassessment were left out.
Advocate Rohit Bras de Sa, representing the petitioner Swapnesh Sherlekar and others, told the court during the hearing that the underassessment of 46 cases is a serious matter and that this is not an oversight or accident but a deliberate attempt to cause a loss to the public exchequer.
One instance that the petitioners brought to court was of Rs 7.1 crore, he said, adding that if the petitioner hadn’t come to the court, this would have gone unnoticed. The advocate said that the assessment officer was well aware of the change in fees and told the court that the chief town planner has to be held accountable. After the hearing, Pangam told reporters that govt was given four weeks to complete its preliminary inquiry into the issue and submit a report to the HC.
At the last hearing last week, the HC called on the chief secretary to look into the PIL as it alleges a loss of crores of rupees to the exchequer. Prima facie, the allegations in the petition, if found to be correct, are “quite serious as they directly affect the revenue of the state, ultimately the public exchequer,” the division bench said.
It called on the govt to submit a report within four weeks on steps taken to initiate recovery. The HC called for a thorough inquiry into the matter. Pangam, at the last hearing, said that a preliminary investigation was already initiated by the director of vigilance into the matter and the report will be submitted in a sealed cover to the HC.
The petitioners alleged that the TCP deliberately undervalued the calculation of fees for correction of zone under Section 17(2) of the TCP Act by applying the old rate of Rs 200 per sqm instead of Rs 1,000 per sqm as stipulated by the new notification of March 28, 2024.
