The Delhi government has slapped a penalty of nearly Rs. 50 crore on the Tivoli Garden Resort Hotel for alleged evasion of Value Added Tax.

Last month, the Delhi Lokayukta recommended to President Pratibha Patil that Delhi minister Rajkumar Chauhan be removed from his post for interfering in a 2010 tax raid on the resort.

Delhis VAT commissioner Jalaj Srivastava had complained to Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit last June that a minister he did not name Chauhan phoned him to go slow during a tax raid at the Tivoli Resort in Chhattarpur.

Srivastava on Monday confirmed that a notice had been served: We have sent them the notice and have asked them to pay nearly Rs. 50 crore as tax.

Chauhan accepted during the Lokayukta inquiry that he did call Srivastava but only to ensure that the resort management was not unduly harassed. He also argued that people often request public functionaries like him to make requests like the one to make such phone calls.

Lokayukta Justice Manmohan Sarin rejected the argument, saying an experienced minister like Chauhan must know how to differentiate between requests for curbing undue harassment from those seeking interference in a tax raid.

No action has been taken so far against Chauhan.