The Karnataka High Court on Wednesday directed the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to take coercive action against advertising agencies that fail to pay advertisement tax along with 50 per cent of the interest and penalty by August 2 as per an earlier interim order passed by the court.
The coercive action could include removal of hoardings, structures on which advertisements were displayed and attachment of the properties of advertising agencies or individuals assessees, the court said.
Justice Vineet Kothari passed the order after noticing from the status report filed by the BBMP that 67 advertisement agencies, which have filed petitions questioning the tax demand, are yet to pay up.
Earlier, the court had restrained the BBMP from removing hoardings while asking the petitioner-agencies to make payments as per the interim order.
Other agencies
The court directed the BBMP to submit a status report on tax collection about other advertisement agencies, which have not approached the court but have licences for hoardings.
Expressing dissatisfaction on the slow pace of removal of unauthorised hoardings, the court said that only 309 of the 2,439 unauthorised hoardings have been removed. It refused to accept the BBMP’s claim of non-availability of contractors and staff to dismantle unauthorised hoardings.
Expressing dissatisfaction with the progress of collection of advertisement tax — around ₹43 crore has been realised of the total due of around ₹331 crore — Justice Kothari directed the BBMP counsel to submit the list of officials responsible for the collection of tax and removal of unauthorised hoardings so that it could initiate action against them.