The Madras High Court reserved its orders, on Monday, in actor Vijay‘s petition challenging a notice issued by the Commercial Taxes department in September 2021, demanding a penalty on the entry tax for his imported BMW X5 car.
In 2005, when the actor imported the luxury car from the US, he had filed a writ petition with the HC against the demand for entry tax and obtained an interim order to get the vehicle registered with the concerned Regional Transport Office. This plea was dismissed in 2019.
Following this, the Commercial Taxes department passed an assessment order and demanded that Vijay pay the full entry tax along with a penalty amount.
The actor had paid only the tax amount of Rs 7.98 lakh in September 2021, under protest, and challenged the demand of penalty and recovery notices issued to him. In January 2022, he filed for a new plea challenging the notice from the tax department.
Vijay mentioned in his plea that the import duty for the car was already paid and added that there was uncertainty over the applicability of the Tamil Nadu Tax on Entry of Motor Vehicles into Local Areas Act of 1990. However, in 2017, the Supreme Court upheld the state government’s authority to levy entry tax on foreign goods.
When Vijay’s plea was heard by Justice R Suresh Kumar on Monday, the Additional Advocate General (AAG) Haja Nazirudeen, appearing for the Commercial Taxes department, noted that the actor did not pay his tax liabilities nor file returns voluntarily, even after the 14-year-old case was dismissed.
He told the court that the department had sent several notices to the actor, between March and July 2021, seeking the details of import and freight charges. When no responses were received from him, the officials gathered details of the car from the RTO, which revealed that the car was worth was Rs 63.84 lakh. In September 2021, the authorities used this information to calculate that an entry tax of Rs 7.98 lakh and an interest penalty of Rs 30.23 lakh were due.
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The AAG said that though the actor claimed to have sold the car in 2009, the sale could not free him from his liabilities since he was the original importer of the vehicle. The AAG thus urged the HC to dismiss the writ petition filed by the actor.
After hearing all arguments, the judge reserved his verdict.
Meanwhile, Vijay was recently spotted in a red Maruti Celerio car when he went to cast his vote in the urban civic polls. Following this, rumours surfaced on social media that he had defaulted on the insurance payment for the car. Reacting to these rumours, the actor’s PR manager, Riaz K, shared a copy of the actor’s car insurance, showing that it is valid till May 28, 2022.