The Delhi Government’s Revenue Department has issued showcause notice to prosecute the owners, all principal officers and directors of 11 corporate houses for evading stamp duty to the tune of crores of rupees.
These corporate houses have been allotted land for construction of luxury hotels at Aerocity near Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA). The notices to prosecute have been issued against chairman and managing director (CMD), directors, authorised representatives and companies’ secretaries of M/s lemon Tree Hotels limited, Wave Hospitality, Hyacinth Hotels, Aria Hotels and Consultancy Services Private limited, InterGlobe Hotels, Caddie Hotels, Bird Airport Hotels, Bharti Realty limited, The Pride Hotels limited, Juniper Hotels and Sweta Estate Private limited. A copy of notices to prosecute has also been sent to Deputy Comptroller and Audit of General, Secretary of Ministry of Civil Aviation and Secretary of Department of Cooperate Affairs for further action.
“Why prosecution under Section 62 read with Section 65 of Stamp Duty Act may not be initiated against all of them including the principal officers of the respective companies, CMD, directors, authorised representatives, companies secretaries or so as the case may be which exercise should be dealt with separately and individually with reference to the respective files,” collector of stamps lalit Mohan said in the order.
The collector of stamps has earlier issued notices to 11 hotels for evading stamp duty to the tune of crores of rupees and asked them to pay the stamp duty or face action. Revenue Department officials said that the agreement between hotel owners and developer Delhi International Airport limited (DIAl) comes under lease agreement and it is not a development agreement, hence they should have paid the stamp duty to the Government while entering into an agreement with the developer, DIAl. “The possession of land is under these hotels. They have got building plans sanctioned and constructed hotels. Now, they are running businesses from their leased premises. If it was a development agreement, then DIAl should keep land possession in its own hand and construct these hotels. Private developers should not be given possession of land and other facilities,” officials said
The order said, “All the parties have devised to avoid payment of stamp duty that too intentionally and deliberately in view of the fact that the parties despite opportunity failed to produce instrument governing legal relationship with Delhi International Airport limited (DIAl), or even produce a copy thereof, intention to defraud is writ large on the face of it. By virtue of section 62, instruments not duly stamped attract criminal prosecution read with Section 65 of the Indian Stamp Act.”
In the their defence, the representatives of corporate houses have taken the common stand and challenged the locus standee of the collector of stamps in issuing the showcause notices in the absence of any agreement of lease ever produced before him or came to ho him in the discharge of his official functions.
According to revenue department, DIAl has successfully able to lease land aggregating 45 acre out of total 5,100 acre in Delhi Airport Aerocity to various entities for the purpose of development, operation and maintenance of hospitality sites. DIAl, a joint venture between the Airport Authority of India and the GMR Group, had planned to build a hospitality district with ten plots for hotels and another three for retail space and a convention centre in the 43-acre expanse. The idea behind a hospitality district near the airport was primarily to make Delhi a transit destination for
travellers on the lines of Changi Airport in Singapore or the JFK Airport in the US. The total investment in this project is estimated to be around Rs 12,000 crore.