Cuttack: The Orissa Association for Rowing and Sculling has asked the Sports Authority of India to reconsider its decision to levy charges for using infrastructure, electricity and cleaning of its water centre at Jagatpur for the 38th Junior National Rowing Championship.

The rowing association has claimed the charges levied as "exorbitant" and "unnecessary". The championship was held from November 15 to 18.

The SAI centre-in-charge L. Johnson Singh had issued a letter to the rowing association on November 14 for payment of Rs 35,990 towards use of infrastructure, electricity bill and cleaning.

The bill amount included Rs 5,490 additional charge towards GST at 18 per cent.

In the letter, Singh specified that the charges were being levied on orders from assistant director (personnel & coaching), SAI, Calcutta.

In a letter to Singh, the rowing association president Binod Dash said they had conducted the junior national championship five times till date, and every time it had got SAI support.

"But this time we are shocked to receive a bill for payment towards various heads which had never happened before. Exorbitant and unnecessary charges have been levied on us without any basis and surmises, which is regrettable," Dash said in his letter hoping that the bill would be reconsidered.

Though no SAI equipment was used at the event an amount Rs 12,000 has been levied for the purpose.

"We have not used any SAI equipment. Rather we have used equipment bought from the Jharkhand government during the 2012 championship. The GST charges are also unwarranted," Dash contended.

"As for using infrastructure, only the stage and open space in front of it was used for the opening and closing ceremonies. So no infrastructure charge should be levied on us," the rowing association president said. The bill includes Rs 6,000 as infrastructure charge.

As for the Rs 6,000 electricity charge, Dash says: "In case of electricity, we have already deposited the charges at the local electricity office as had been the case in previous occasions. Besides, we also had our own generator sets to power the sound system and lights for the entire championship".

"Cleaning charge has been levied when the rowing association maintained the field at its own cost. Without taking help of SAI staff, the rowing association had arranged sweepers from outside to keep the venue clean during the championship", Dash said.

The SAI centre-in-charge was not available for comments.