NAGPUR: Even as vendors
are upset with city power franchisee SNDL for non-payment of dues,
Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) too has taken note of non-payment of
its pole rent for 2012-13. The standing committee is set to discuss the
issue in Tuesday’s meeting.

In the last standing committee
budget, rent had been levied on space used by poles and transformers
belonging to SNDL (earlier Spanco) on the grounds that it was a private
company. As per calculations of Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC), the
rent came to around Rs54 lakh for 2012-13.

While officials of
SNDL as well as MSEDCL told mediapersons that the rent was illegal, the
company never challenged the decision and also did not bother to pay it.

Standing panel chairman Avinash Thakre told TOI that he had asked tax
officials to convene a meeting with SNDL officials in this regard. “I
was busy in the last few days and could not follow it up. Tomorrow,
non-payment of rent will be discussed in the meeting when revenue
collection for 2012-13 comes up. We will take necessary measures to
recover the amount,” he told TOI.

The standing committee’s
budget for 2012-13 levied tax on the franchisee for using public land
for its electric poles, transformers and substations. NMC had never
charged rent from MSEDCL as it was a government company. The civic
agency estimated that it would earn between Rs3-4 crore this fiscal.
However, now the estimate has come down to Rs54 lakh.

A senior MSEDCL official maintained that all poles, transformers, substations and other property handed over to Spanco
belong to MSEDCL. “Even the new equipment that Spanco installs will
revert to us after 15 years. Apparently, NMC is not aware of this fact,”
he told TOI.