GURGAON: Plot owners in Udyog Vihar are bracing for another confrontation with the industry authority, this time on the subject of maintenance charges. The Haryana Industrial and Infrastructural Development Corporation (HSIIDC) has demanded a maintenance charge of over Rs 16 per square metre from industrialists for the years 2013-14, an amount which is now being challenged by the local association.

“The rate arrived at lacks clarity. It is causing confusion. The basis of calculating the rate is still under a veil of secrecy,” said a letter recently circulated in the industrial community.

The money spent by the industry authority on various maintenance and upkeep projects is recovered through this tax-collection drive at the end of the year.

Industry representatives have appealed for more transparency in the calculation process, but little has been achieved on this front. “There was a time when maintenance money was around Rs 6 per sq m. Now, it is over Rs 16 per sq m,” said H R Vaish, president of the Chamber of Industries of Udyog Vihar.

He added that the matter will now be dealt at the level of the Operations and Maintenance Committee of Udyog Vihar, a joint forum comprising both HSIIDC officials and local industrialists.

Those in favour of transparency have demanded that the HSIIDC make its tax calculation methodology public. The ‘various types of expenditure loaded on the maintenance charge,’ the detractors say, must be duly declared.”Unless this information is made available, and is approved by the members of the maintenance committee, demanding maintenance charges from plot owners is meaningless,” said an industrialist.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/gurgaon/Plot-owners-oppose-maintenance-charge-of-over-16-per-square-metre/articleshow/27254324.cms