Agra: The Agra Municipal Corporation has served notices on the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) asking it to pay property tax and water bills for the iconic Taj Mahal for the first time in its 370-year history, officials said. According to officials of the ASI, a notice for water tax and one for property tax has been issued.
The ASI has been asked to pay around Rs 1.40 lakh and Rs 1 crore as water tax. ASI’s Superintending Archaeologist(Agra circle) Raj Patel told ANI, ‘A notice for water tax and one for property tax has been issued. The property tax is around Rs 1.40 lakh and the water tax is around Rs 1 crore’. Both the Taj Mahal and the Agra fort have been served notices for outstanding bills by various units of the Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government. The ASI has been asked to pay more than Rs 1 crore in ‘dues’. The official said it had to be an error as such taxes don’t apply for monuments.
‘First of all, property tax or house tax is not applicable to monument premises. Uttar Pradesh laws have this provision too and so do other states. As for the water notice, in the past no such demand has been made and we do not have any water connection that we use for any commercial purposes. The lawns that we maintain inside the Taj complex are for public service and there is no question of dues’, Dr Patel said.
The Agra fort, a UNESCO world heritage site built by the Mughal emperor Akbar, was the main residence of the emperors of the Mughal Dynasty until 1638, when the capital was moved from Agra to Delhi. This historic monument has also received a five-crore rupee tax demand, according to ASI officials. ‘The cantonment board had served us notice for the Agra fort, a world heritage monument – a total of over ? 5 crore. We have replied to them that the concerned government Act exempts monuments’, Dr Patel said.
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