No space to park trucks seized in octroi raids

The total value of  seized items could be well above Rs1 crore

In the second consecutive raid within three days, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) seized 45 vehicles for evasion of octroi duty on Wednesday. Supervised by joint municipal commissioner V Radha, the raid took place at Mulund octroi naka at LBS marg at 2.30 am.

Officials of the department said the action lasted for over three hours on which eight vigilance officers, 20 BMC duty officers and eight private security guards participated.

The authorities said among the seized vehicles were 44 trucks carrying electronic goods, motor parts and plastic goods, mostly from Delhi.

While the official valuation is yet to be completed, the authorities have assessed the value of the seized items to be over Rs1 crore. Among the vehicles seized is a Honda City with 26 cameras in it. The authorities will slap a penalty that will be 5.5 times the original octroi leviable on the cameras.

Earlier, on October 1, the joint commissioner had raided the Mulund octroi naka at Eastern Express Highway. Eastern
Express highway naka was already raided twice before in the last three months.

The corporation is however facing another problem due to constant raids. After the October 1 raid, due to traffic chaos, the corporation had moved the vehicles to Pant Nagar garage in Ghatkopar and in Bhandup Complex.

While the valuation of those trucks is only halfway through, 45 seized today have to be put up at the same spot, which the authorities find it difficult due to space crunch.