Citing financial crunch, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has sought exemption from VAT from the Delhi Government in view of increase in cost of various components, including the electricity tariff.
The matter has recently been discussed in a meeting of the Group of Ministers (GoM). The outstanding VAT amount on DMRC for last four years stands at Rs 300 crore. At the board meeting held on Friday, the DMRC again requested the GoM either to exempt the outstanding VAT or reimburse the amount of Rs 300 crore to tide over the crisis.
Senior officials of the Delhi Government said they might not exempt the DMRC from VAT owing to huge expenditure on various infrastructure projects, particularly during the Commonwealth Games.
They, however, indicated that the Government could waive the outstanding dues. last year, DMRC had asked the Centre for a hike in fares, citing increasing operational costs. But, the committee on fare hike is yet to be set up. "This has prompted the DMRC to look for a subsidy from the Government or to exempt VAT to pay back its loans," officials said.
The loan from Japan International Cooperation Agency is paid from the operational revenue collected by DMRC. If this goes down then subsidies would have to be considered to bail out Delhi Metro. However, officials said a decision to exempt VAT was not taken, it was most likely that the metro fares would be revised to compensate for the loss. On March 31 too, DMRC requested the State Government to reimburse the settlement for the Phase II Metro Project, but the request was turned down.