Lucknow . Lucknow Municipal Corporation has issued a property tax notice of more than Rs 28 crore to the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee International Stadium (Ekana Stadium) administration. The Women’s Premier League and the Indian Premier League (IPL) are to be held this month at Ekana Stadium this month. In such a situation, this notice can question the future of these matches. However, the stadium administration has said to meet Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in this regard, calling this notice wrong.
According to a statement issued by Additional Commissioner Pankaj Srivastava by the Municipal Corporation, Zone-four of the Municipal Corporation on Saturday gave a notice to the Ekana Stadium to pay a property tax of Rs 28,42,96,903. According to the statement, “the stadium administration is to be fixed from December 1, 2020 and the amount of Rs 5,45,32,654 and the remaining dues are to be paid at Rs 22,97,64,249 in the Municipal Corporation fund.” In this way, instructions have also been issued to pay a total of Rs 28,42,96,903. This decision has been taken by the Municipal Corporation as per law and it will be fully implemented.
According to the statement, Additional Municipal Commissioner Pankaj Srivastava said that only sports grounds and sports stadiums of government aided or unaided recognized educational institutions are exempted from tax, so the Ekana Cricket Stadium will not get the benefit of this exemption. The Additional Municipal Commissioner said that in addition to IPL and other professional sports in the Ekana Stadium, there are cultural programs which are sold tickets. He said, “The determination of assets at the Ekana Stadium is completely appropriate. At present, only property tax is being determined, no process of water tax and sewer charges is being done.
According to the statement, Srivastava said that the objections filed by the Ekana Stadium in the past are baseless and the stadium comes under property tax, hence the zone-four of the Municipal Corporation has issued a notice to the stadium. Meanwhile, Uday Sinha, director of the Ekana Stadium, told ‘PTI-Bhasha’, “He has received the notice of the Municipal Corporation but it is’ against the rules”. He will soon meet Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and plead for justice.
Sinha said that about seven months ago, the stadium administration had filed its objections in the Municipal Corporation regarding the determination of the house tax, which have now been rejected. He said that it is not written in the notice that when the outstanding amount is to be deposited. On the question of whether in the event of not depositing tax, whether the IPL matches will be affected, Sinha said, “We will meet the Chief Minister. It is expected that we will get justice and this notice will be rejected. ”Ekana Stadium is the home ground of Lucknow ‘Super Giants’ of IPL and seven matches of IPL are to be played in this stadium.
