BHUBANESWAR: Private agencies operating seven properties of Tourism department have not paid their annual lease rental (ALR) running in crores and the latter has also not taken any step to terminate their lease, a preliminary audit by the Accountant General, Odisha has flagged.
The audit revealed ALR of Rs 3.24 crore is pending on the part of the private agencies for several years now. The properties are Pantha Nivas at Bhadrak, Panthasalas at Sarankula and Kantilo, tourist reception centre at Baripada, and wayside amenity at Sunabeda. These seven properties were leased out to private agencies for operation and maintenance on public private partnership (PPP) mode and in some cases, the period of rent began from 2016.
As per the department guidelines, the ALR shall be calculated at 10 per cent of the upfront payment made by the agencies to the department, and would be escalated in every two years on the basis of wholesale price index.
For the first year, the ALR would be paid on the date of agreement-signing and in subsequent years, it will be paid in advance on the date of anniversary of the appointed date. In case the lessees failed to pay the ALR within 15 days of the due date, an interest of 18 pc would be charged per annum for the period of delay, apart from the right to terminate the lease contract as per the agreement.
The audit found out that though the department had issued demand notice to six of the agencies for payment of outstanding dues with penal interest, no demand notice of ALR was issued to all the seven units. Thus, non-recovery of ALR for current period resulted in non-realisation of Rs 3.24 crore towards ALR.
The audit noticed that the ALR dues have been outstanding against all the seven agencies since long but no action for termination of lease has been initiated by the department.