Thane RTO fraud cost state 150 cr……Nitin Yeshwantrao
THANE: The Mumbai unit of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) is closing in on a Rs 150-crore fraud, involving officials of the Thane RTO. The officials allegedly undervalued the professional tax to be paid by motorists to the state exchequer.
ACB officials are scrutinizing 40,000-odd documents pertaining to professional tax, registration of new vehicles, permits and no-objection certificates issued by the Thane RTO in the last four years.
State transport commissioner Dilip Jadhav and regional transport officer (Thane) NK Patil were summoned to the ACB office on Tuesday to explain the procedure and the unaccounted cash由s 10 lakh葉hat the investigators had found stashed inside a locker at the RTO office during a raid last week.
ACB sleuths grilled the two officials separately and are said to have pointed out specific cases of incorrect assessment of professional tax by the RTO officials. It is estimated that the undervaluation has cost the state exchequer Rs 150 crore.
According to officials, maximum number of commercial vehicles are registered by at the Thane RTO and nearly 1.30 lakh vehicles are eligible for payment of professional tax. However, records in possession of ACB reveal that most of the owners of vehicles registered with the Thane RTO did not pay professional tax.
“Thane RTO officials asked vehicle owners to pay professional tax for the last one year. They took money from the owners and overlooked their previous defaults,” a state government official said.
In cases where the RTO officials entered into an under-the-table deal with a vehicle owner, notings on the document were done in red ink while blue ink was used for all other papers where there was “no aedjustment,” sources said.
It is learnt that Jadhav and Patil initially claimed ignorance to the default, but subsequently blamed their predecessors for the fraud. The ACB is also probing if the midnight mystery fire at the Thane RTO office in February 2009 was an attempt to destroy evidence, such as fake challans.
Patil has blamed deputies and the junior clerks, responsible for assessment and collection of professional tax, for the lapses.