The petitioner has prayed that the state excise departments’ demand should be set aside and it be directed to pay the renewal fees for this year and get the licencee renewed.
Should licence renewal fees be paid even if the business is not open, this was the question raised before the Bombay high court by the widow of a businessman who held a foreign liquor licence and is now wanting to renew it but the state excise department is demanding fees for the previous years too, claiming that if the licence had been surrendered, the department would have earned revenue by re-selling it.
Kamudini Nagde’s petition states that, in 1995, her husband Kaluram, who held the licence, died and since then their wine shop has remained closed.
Last year, when she approached the state excise department for renewal of the licence they directed her to pay an outstanding renewal fee amounting to around Rs93 lakhs, including interest at the rate of 2% per month.
Nagde moved the court stating that the state’s demand was unjust. The judges questioned the state’s demand saying “How can you charge this fee, if the person has not done any business, then it is clear that licence was not required.”
Government pleader Vijay Patil said “There were rules which state that licence fees have to recovered for the period the licence is with the receiver. It does not matter if it has been used or not. If the business was closed after the death of the original owner of the licence, then the legal heirs should have returned it to the state, we could have re-sold it to someone else.”
The judges said, “How can the state charge interest on the non-payment of renewal fees?” Patil said, “The legislature and the Supreme Court judgments make it clear that fees have to be charged from the day when the licence is not renewed and thus it is not arbitrary and laid down in the law.”
The bench, which was not convinced by the arguments, has now told Patil to file an affidavit in response to the queries raised by it and adjourned the hearing till February 17.
The petitioner has prayed that the state excise departments’ demand should be set aside and it be directed to pay the renewal fees for this year and get the licencee renewed.
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