INDORE: A day before the India-South Africa T20 match, the Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) raided the office of the Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association (MPCA) demanding payment of pending taxes, while office-bearers claimed that the tactics were adopted to get "free passes" for the match.
"The IMC team visited our office on Monday demanding payment of pending taxes and created chaos in the accounts department.
They were asking us to pay entertainment tax for the previous Road Safety series matches that were not organised by the association," MPCA president Abhilash Khandekar told PTI on Tuesday.
He further claimed that the timing of the raid was obvious, as the civic officials wanted more free passes.
"The fact is that we had given them 25 free passes and still they want more and that's why they conducted the raid a day before the crucial international match," Khandekar said.
However, IMC deputy commissioner Lata Agrawal told PTI that the MPCA has not paid garbage tax for the last five years and water tax for two years.
Our assistant revenue officer has been reminding them for the last two months to clear pending dues, including entertainment tax, but the cricket body was not paying them, the official said.
But Khandekar countered by asking whether they have given any notice for it earlier and why they are raising it a day before the match.
On the MPCA's allegation that the raid was conducted to extract more passes for the IMC, Agrawal said the civic body is capable of purchasing tickets for half of the city's population and there was no question of bullying the cricket body for it.
Khandekar said the time for depositing the property tax was till March 31, 2023 for the financial year 2022-23, but the MPCA had paid Rs 32 lakh tax on Monday itself to avoid any controversy ahead of the international match.
Agrawal also confirmed that the MPCA had paid Rs 32 lakh property tax on Monday after their team visited the office.
Khandekar also claimed that the IMC was sending notices to the association in the name of Usha Raje Trust Ground, though it had requested the civic body a number of times to change the name in their records, as auditors were objecting to it.
To this, Agrawal said that the land was allotted to the cricket body in the name of Usha Raje Trust and its title cannot be changed as the name is entered in the records on the basis of the registry papers and therefore, it was pending.
Khandekar also alleged that IMC officials were pressurising the MPCA to pay the entertainment tax for T-20 India-South Africa match though it was scheduled on Tuesday though it was yet to be played.
The senior civic official, however, denied that allegation and said that the IMC had demanded entertainment tax dues of the previous matches and not the current one.