ASI gets notice to pay Rs 1.4L house tax on Taj Mahal

In a first, the civic body in Uttar Pradesh's Agra has slapped a notice on the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) asking it to pay Rs 1.47 lakh as house tax on the Taj Mahal, a protected monument famous all over the world.

According to ASI officials, the notice to pay the outstanding house tax on the Taj Mahal was received a few days ago, though it had been issued last month. The ASI had been given 15 days to clear the dues.

The notice also said that the property (Taj Mahal) would be "attached" if the tax was not cleared within the stipulated time.

Sources said that the house tax amount also included over Rs 47,000 as interest on the outstanding. The annual house tax on the Monument of Love was Rs 11,098, they added.

The ASI officials said that the Taj Mahal had been declared a protected monument in 1920 and that even during the British regime, no house tax had been levied on the monument.

Officials said that a similar notice for payment of outstanding house tax on the 'Tomb of Itmad-ud-Daulah', a Mughal mausoleum in Agra, which was also a protected monument. Also referred to as the 'Baby Taj', the mausoleum was commissioned by Nur Jahan, the wife of Mughal emperor Jahangir, for her father.

Officials said that no tax was levied on the national monuments and that the notice by the Agra Municipal Corporation could have been sent by 'mistake'. The Corporation officials, however, said that a private company had been entrusted with the task of realising the house tax in the town and the 'mistake' if any might have been committed by it.