Chennai: With the Madras High Court directing Vijay to pay the balance 80 per cent entry tax for his Rolls Royce Ghost car within a week of demand challan issued by the tax department, sources close to the actor said he would pay it at the earliest.
In a relief to popular Vijay, the Madras High Court on Tuesday stayed a single Judge order imposing a fine of Rs one lakh on him for filing a petition seeking entry tax exemption for the car imported from England in 2012.
Granting an interim stay, a Division Bench comprising Justices M Duraiswamy and R Hemalatha. however, said a decision on the actor’s another plea of removing critical remarks passed against him by the Single Judge would be taken during the next hearing.
Appearing for the actor, senior counsel Vijay Narayan submitted that he was not challenging the entry tax demand and was only challenging the adverse observations made by the Single Judge who had imposed Rs one lakh fine on 13 July.
On a plea from Vijay Narayanan requesting the court to direct the department to issue the challan within a week as the issue need not be dragged for long, the court directed the department to raise the demand challan within a week.
Justice S M Subramaniam had on 13 July dismissed a petition filed by Vijay seeking exemption from entry tax for importing the Rolls Royce car and imposed a fine of Rs one
lakh on him.
While pointing out that paying tax was one’s duty and not a philanthropic act, the Judge came down heavily on the actor and said, ‘people see actors as real heroes. They should not behave like reel heroes. Tax evasion is anti-national and un-constitutional’.