Patna, July 8: The big four in the hospitality industry in the city are among the biggest holding tax defaulters. Together, they owe over half-a-crore to Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC).

According to the revenue details of the PMC, Hotel Chanakya, Maurya, Samrat International and Satkar together have not paid holding tax to the tune of Rs 52.62 lakh. But the civic body has not taken any action against them yet despite deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi’s directive on Wednesday to nail the tax evaders.

“Chankaya owes close to Rs 25 lakh to PMC. Samrat International has not paid Rs 11.25 lakh. The dues of Satkar is Rs 8.37 lakh. Maurya, too owes close to Rs 8 lakh to the civic body,” PMC mayor Afzal Imam told The Telegraph.

The representatives of hotels emphasised that they were not trying to get away without paying taxes to PMC.

“Our taxes were wrongly calculated and we have appealed to PMC against it. The hearing in the matter is going on,” said Suresh Singh, the accounts manager of Hotel Chankaya.

B.D. Singh, the general manager of Maurya, said the hotel had been paying taxes on time. The hotel has not been intimated about any outstanding bills, he added.

“If PMC is saying that we owe some taxes to them, they should send us a notice and we will clear the dues,” Singh said.

PMC officials said the holding tax rate is Rs 54 per sqft per annum for commercial establishments on main roads and Rs 18 per sqft for residential buildings on main roads. They also said very few people had paid holding tax voluntarily and owners of majority of the business houses, showrooms and official complexes have not been paying taxes for years.

“The big players earning crores of rupees from business are not at all interested in co-operating with the tax officials. We have recently found out that a business complex in the New Capital circle of the corporation has not paid Rs 28 lakh to the civic body as holding taxes. It is a clear cut case of tax theft,” Imam said.

On being asked if PMC had planned to crack whip on the defaulters, Imam said: “We can only direct officials to serve notice to the tax defaulters. If some exemplary action is taken against a couple of defaulters, everyone will understand the seriousness of paying holding taxes.”

In a review meeting with urban development department and PMC officials on Wednesday, the deputy chief minister had asked to detach the property or to seal the bank accounts of “big tax defaulters”. Three days on, the civic body has not even started to compile a centralised data of such defaulters in all the four circles of the civic body.