Mathura (UP), Mar 22 (PTI) The Nagar Nigam Mathura Vrindavan claimed on Friday to have frozen the bank accounts of the Mathura Refinery as it has not deposited pending tax of about Rs 80 lakh.

However, the refinery has denied any such development.

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"The Mathura Refinery would be allowed to operate its accounts with the State Bank of India if an amount of Rs 79,96,733, due as pending taxes, is deposited in the Nagar Nigam's account," Shashank Chaudhari, Nagar Ayukta, Mathura Vrindavan Nagar Nigam, said.

He said letters for depositing the pending tax amount were sent to the refinery on January 6 and March 13.

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The refinery, however, has denied any such development, saying all its bank accounts are operational.

"No bank account of the Mathura Refinery has been frozen. All our accounts are operational," Bhaskar Hazarika, Chief General Manager (HR) of the refinery, said.

He said the matter is pending in the Allahabad High Court as the refinery is exempted from all taxes imposed by state authorities in accordance with Article 285 of the Constitution.

Article 285 says, "The property of the Union shall, save in so far as Parliament may by law otherwise provide, be exempt from all taxes imposed by a state or by any authority within a state."

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)