Dhanush Seeks Tax Exemption For His Rolls Royce; Court Fumes

Just a month ago, Thalapathy Vijay was fined Rs 1 lakh by the Madras High Court for importing a luxury car Roll Royce Ghost from England and failing to pay entry tax on it. And today on Thursday, the Madras HC refused to permit actor Dhanush to withdraw a plea filed in 2015 seeking exemption from entry tax for import of a Rolls Royce car from the UK.

It said the actor failed to pay the tax even after the issue was settled by the Supreme Court in 2018. When the plea came up for hearing, counsel for Dhanush informed the court that the actor had already paid 50% of the tax and he will pay the remaining due.

He sought the court to permit him to withdraw the plea. Refusing it, Justice S M Subramaniam said the petition has been pending since 2015. The judge said that if the intentions are genuine, the actor should have paid the tax by now. But he sought to withdraw after HC listed the matter for passing the order.

The judge further said, “You are going to drive the luxury car on the roads laid using the taxpayers’ money. Even daily wage labourers are paying and no one approaches the HC seeking exemption from such taxes”. The court asked the commercial tax officer concerned to be present in the court with a demand for the pending tax to be paid.

Back in July, the court also slammed Vijay’s frequent avoiding payment of Entry tax and keeping the writ petition pending for about nine years as an unappreciated move. The actor was ordered to pay Entry tax within two weeks, by adjusting 20% of Entry Tax as ordered by the Court.