The High Court lashed out at the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) on Thursday for its failure to explain how it determined that the City-headquartered software company Wipro Technologies owed it Rs 16 crore in tax dues.
The Palike had issued Wipro a tax notice in July 2013 by beating drums in front of its office — a practice it adopted with moderate success to collect tax dues from major defaulters. The company, however, went to High Court challenging the notice. It contended that the tax not payable. Besides, the BBMP had not explained how it arrived at the figure of Rs 16 crore. Accordingly, it sought that the tax notice be quashed.
During a hearing on Wipro’s petition, Justice H G Ramesh gave a dressing-down to the BBMP for resorting to beating drums without properly calculating the tax dues.
The court, on finding that the BBMP had not furnished details on how it arrived at Rs 16 crore as Wipro’s tax dues, remarked: “You can’t beat drums without reasons. You must have a reason for your actions. This is 21st century and you cannot behave in an uncivilised manner. You go beating drums in front of a reputed company and now can’t you argue about it here? If you had asked for it, they (Wipro) would have come and given the money to you.”
In an earlier order, the court had stayed the tax recovery drive. The stay has been extended further.
Arkavathy encroachment
The High Court has directed the State government to form a committee to look into the encroachment of Arkavathy catchment area.
Justice A N Venugopala Gowda gave the order on Thursday on a batch of petitions for removing encroachments and polluting units from the catchment area of Arkavathy.