Goa govt owes us Rs six crore, claim Sunburn fest organisers

Faced with allegations on non-payment of Rs 1.75 crore dues to the Goa government in connection with the Sunburn EDM festival, its organisers today claimed that the state administration owes them Rs 6 crore instead, in the form of various refunds.
"Percept has been persistent in its efforts to recover dues totalling to over Rs six crores from the Government of Goa since five years. This includes recoverable deposits of Rs 1.25 crore towards Sunburn, Rs 3.03 crore for Lusifonia Games, Rs 50 lakhs for Windsong music festival and Rs 51 lakhs Entertainment Tax refund for the year 2014 and 2015," Manuj Agarwal, Chief Executive Officer - Percept Live, told reporters here.

He claimed that Percept has repeatedly written to the Goa government requesting for a resolution on a number of pending matters including request for a reversal of the revised police bandobast charges levied for the Sunburn events held in 2013, 2014 and 2015 and a refund of excess charges paid under protest for the respective years.
Agarwal said state is yet to refund of State Level Permission Committee (SLPC) fees of Rs 50 lakhs of Windsong Music Festival held in December 2012 besides the payment of balance amount of Rs 3.03 crores due to Percept for the Lusofonia Games held in 2014.

"We have large amounts to recover from the State of Goa and are anxiously awaiting meetings and appeal hearings to find resolutions to the irrational 'police bandobast' charges and Entertainment Tax levied on the complimentary tickets," Agarwal said.
State Tourism minister Dilip Parulekar had said that the Sunburn Festival would not happen till they pay Rs 1.75 crore dues for providing security cover to the event.

He, however, could not be reached for comments today after claims made by the Sunburn organisers.
Agarwal said in 2012, the Government of Goa constituted a "single window clearance" procedure through the formation of a "State Level Permission Committee" (SLPC) that would consider various organisers' plans/presentation and grant permissions.

"However, the SLPC became counter-productive as it resulted in inordinate delays in obtaining permissions, duplication of permissions and fees," he said.
Percept had repeatedly written to the government requesting for the Single Window Process to be revised to initiate timely and speedy grant of permissions from a single window and a reversal of fees," he added.