Harris Jayaraj moves HC against entry tax on luxury car

CHENNAI: Renowned musician Harris Jayaraj on Monday moved the Madras High Court seeking a stay on the notice sent by the Tamil Nadu government asking him to pay an entry tax of Rs 11.50 lakh on an imported luxury car.

In 2010, Harris Jayaraj imported an Italian luxury car called Maserati GranTurismo sports coupe. When he tried to register the vehicle with the local RTO, they refused to register the imported vehicle on the grounds that entry tax had not been paid. While the case against this was dismissed, the State government sent a notice in 2019 demanding payment of entry tax arrears of Rs 13.07 lakh.

Objecting this, the musician again moved Madras High Court. Then the court ordered that the musician to pay the entry tax with penalty.

After this the State government again asked the musician to pay an entry tax of Rs 11.50 lakh.

Subsequently, Harris filed a petition at the Madras High Court seeking a stay on this notice on Monday. In the petition, it has been stated that Rs 11.50 lakh had already been paid as an entry tax for the car which was sold in July 2012. Also, it is said that the single judge who heard the cases related to entry tax has ordered to pay only an entry tax but the notice sent by the government mentioned a penalty too. When this came for condone delay before Justices R Mahadevan and Mohammed Shaffiq, Counsel Vijayan Subramaniyam appeared for musician Harris Jayaraj. The case is expected to be listed for hearing soon.