PMC tightens the screws on Britannia

The civic officer further threatened to order unloading of the vehicles carrying Britannia consignments if the company failed to submit the original bills. The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) had already fined its authorised distributors here to the tune of Rs 1.56 lakh for octroi evasion, he sought to highlight.

Kapoor had told media persons last week that the civic octroi staff had been directed by him to lodge a criminal complaint against the multinational company and its authorised distributors here, Sharad and Mayur, for repeated octroi evasion.

This was in the wake of the seizure of a consignment of 425 containers of Britannia biscuits being brought into the civic limits without octroi payment. This was the third time in a month that the company and its distributors were caught red-handed evading octroi, according to Kapoor.

However, the MNC sought to clarify that the biscuit consignments were sent from its Mumbai factory and other places to Rajgurunagar Depot, which was located outside the PMC octroi cordon. The authorised wholesalers arrange to take the stocks inside the civic limits. “Since out authorised wholesalers are importers, octroi payment liability is entirely on them,” it was stated in the clarification.

It was further mentioned that the company had not received any notice from the PMC regarding octroi evasion nor was any penalty paid by it. The two consignments seized, 425 containers on April 14, 1998, and 13 tins on an earlier occasion, had been released to the authorised wholesalers by the municipal authorities. A penalty of Rs 33, 995 was paid by the authorised wholesaler’s transporter, Neeraj Roadways.

Meanwhile, Kapoor has stated that the elite force of the PMC octroi department yesterday caught a consignment of 200 Luxmi fans accessories from Ludhiana, estimated to be worth Rs 1.70 lakh, being brought into the civic limits without payment of octroi in a vehicle belonging to Ghanshyam Traders, Pimpri. A fine of Rs 57,000 had been slapped on the importer of the material.

Similarly, another consignment of Super Max blades and shaving cream bundled in 11 boxes were seized from a vehicle belonging to Neeraj Roadways. The consignment was estimated to be worth Rs four lakh and a fine of Rs 84,000 had been imposed in the case, according to Kapoor.