Income Tax acquires property for Rs. 16 Crores – thoroughly useless
2100 square metres of prime land at Delhi’s Saket. The USP of the plot are that a sewer line, a water supply line, three covered storm water drains and a metalled road constructed by MCD were running through the plot of land. Besides, a ‘nallah’ was also flowing adjacent to the plot. The public was using the road as a thoroughfare. Will any one buy such a plot? Income Tax will. And at a huge cost. The Income Tax department bought this plot in 1993 for Rs. 15.30 Crores from DDA for construction of an office building. They also paid an interest of Rs. 45.9 Lakhs for late payment of the amount. And for the last 13 years the plot is rich with the sewers but no sight of the building coming up.
Surprised? Here’s another story.
Income Tax buys a 12-storey building and keeps it vacant, because the jurisdiction of the High Court would clash.
The Department bought a ready built office space of 15000 square metres at Vaishali from GDA at a cost of Rs. 19.94 crore. Then they spent over 16 Crores on civil and electrical works. The beautiful building was ready for occupation in 2003, but the offices did not move in because somebody said that the jurisdiction of the High Court would shift to Allahabad from Delhi.
These interesting facts are revealed by the CAG in his latest report. The report laments,
Improper planning and casual approach of the Income Tax Department in utilising land and buildings acquired for office and residential purposes resulted in idling of Rs. 50.37 crore for periods ranging between 2 and 12 years and avoidable expenditure of Rs. 11.55 crore on payment of interest/extension charges and rent of hired buildings. The Department also incurred additional expenditure of Rs. 1.23 crore on the maintenance of unoccupied building between March 2003 and February 2005 and continued to incur expenditure of Rs. 5.74 crore per annum on rent and maintenance of other hired and unoccupied buildings beyond February 2005.
Though the AG has reported this in the Income Tax department report, there are several such unoccupied buildings acquired by the customs and Central Excise department.