Pune: Right from 1997, the Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML) has collected Rs 272 crore as transport tax as well as child care cess from passengers but has failed to submit the collected money to the Pune Regional Transport Office (RTO). Now the RTO has issued a notice to the transport body to pay the amount. Last month, Pune RTO sent a notice to the PMPML administration asking them to pay Rs 272.4 crore to the transport department.
In 1997, the State Government introduced the 15 paisa surcharge on each ticket to collect funds for helping children suffering from malnutrition in Melghat, Thane, Nandurbar and Chandrapur areas. The passenger tax of 3.5 per cent per ticket was to be utilised to run welfare schemes for passengers using public transport services. Since then, although PMPML has been religiously collecting the tax and the cess from the passengers, it has not paid the collected amount to the Transport Department. Apart from RTO, Pune District Collector too issued notices to subordinate officers asking them to gauge the possibility of sealing PMPML properties to recover the money.
“Of the sum that has been sought from us, Rs 197.51 crore is towards the transport tax collected and Rs 74.89 crore is towards the child nutrition cess. The money is for the period between June 1997 and October 2018,” said an RTO official. Although PMPML came into existence in 2007, the two bodies that were merged namely PMC and PCMT too owed the funds towards transport tax and child nutrition cess. As per the officials, between June 1997 and December 2007 (when the merger happened), the PMT had collected Rs 61.39 crore and PCMT Rs 6.51 crore on behalf of the transport department towards the tax and the cess.
cember 2007 till October 2018, PMPML collected Rs 204.49 crore. As per PMPML officials, they have now knocked at the door of the State Transport Ministry seeking a waiver of the liability citing inability of PMPML to pay the sum and that both Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC), who have stakes in the transport body, have not come forward to pay the money despite efforts.
“Also it’s a complex issue. Before PMPML was formed in 2007, there were some payments of the tax and the cess. It’s not the case that no money has been paid. But now as the PMPML is a different company, it’s difficult to bear the burden of liability that is arising now for a period before 2007. We have sought a waiver of this amount from the State Transport Ministry and have been following the issue,” said a senior official of PMPML.
