News: ATMs may be sealed for not paying fees to Municipal Corporation of Gurugram-05-10-2020

https://www.hindustantimes.com/gurugram/atms-may-be-sealed-for-not-paying-fees-to-municipal-corporation-of-gurugram/story-1vl37SMKZz46NjZa9YDr1K.html

At least 600 ATMs across the city face the prospect of getting sealed if banks do not pay pending registration fees to the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) at the earliest, officials said on Monday.

Officials familiar with the matter said the banks had been served notices repeatedly over the last two months but they have not respond yet.

“The ATMs of all banks falling within MCG area need to pay a registration fee to the civic body. We have already sent three notices to the banks concerned. The third notice (served around Mid-September) was the final one and we have started the proceedings for initiating the next step as per law,” said Sanjeev Maan, senior town planner, MCG.

According to the Haryana government’s Communication and Connectivity Infrastructure Policy 2013, if any communication infrastructure is installed in any commercial building, the owner needs to pay the local municipal corporation a licensing fee for it or remove the structure altogether.

As far as ATMs are concerned, a dish antenna is classified as a communication infrastructure for which banks need to pay Rs 5,000 to the MCG as licence fees per ATM, officials said.

According to officials privy to the matter, a file in connection with the commencement of sealing operations has been sent to MCG commissioner Vinay Pratap Singh for approval.

“As soon as the MCG commissioner gives approval, we will initiate the sealing process. We have sent notices to banks on three separate occasions since August and they haven’t cleared their dues so far. Until we start the sealing process, the banks wouldn’t pay up. It was the same case in 2016 as well,” said a senior MCG official privy to the matter.

MCG commissioner could not be reached for comment.

In July 2016, the Haryana accountant general (audit) had directed MCG to shut around 400 ATMs in the city if banks failed to pay the Rs 5,000 licencing fee within 90 days. Following the expiry of the notice, around a dozen ATMs were also sealed at that time and subsequently, banks had started clearing their dues.

“A meeting was conducted with MCG officials earlier this year where they had asked us for relevant contact details of all banks in the city for the licensing fee process. They had initially sought the same details from a national telecommunications company that provide dish antennas to all ATMs but hadn’t received any response. On July 29, email addresses of all banks concerned in the city were shared with the MCG’s planning branch for their perusal,” said Prahlad Rai Godara, lead district manager (LDM), Gurugram.

The role of the LDM or lead banker is to work as an intermediary between the government and the banks.

Godara said that there are 537 bank branches in urban areas of the city that fall within MCG’s jurisdiction and 1,489 ATMs in the entire Gurugram district.