Hydroelectric Station Going To Be Sold Without Owner's Permission

The Igoeti's station in Kaspi District is going to be forcibly sold at auction. The fact is protested by Gela Guraspashvili, the owner of the station. If Sinatle Ltd, the station, does not pay an estimated bill amounting to 86,000 GEL to the Tax Inspection Department, the station will be sold at auction.

The Tax Inspection Department was granted the right to sell the enterprise on December 6 by a court. The owners of the station are going to appeal the Kaspi District Court's decision. One of the owners, Guraspashvili, considers the tax, estimated by the Tax Inspection Department, to be illegal.

Guraspashvili said that the court satisfied the inspection's suit without any evidence. The owner of the station did not have chance to prove that the enterprise did not have any debts to the state. Guraspashvili claimed that the Tax Inspection Department does not have the necessary document to figure out the exact amount of the debt.

The officials of the Tax Inspection Department blamed the entrepreneur for being late. "We estimated the amount of the debt after having the property seized in 2002. Since that time, nobody has complained," said officials from the Tax Inspection Department.

Guraspashvili said, "The debt is not proved with concrete evidence. The property of the station is more than 2 million GEL. The tax inspection wants to sell our property for 86,000 GEL. Besides that, we received notification of the debt on March 7, 2006. We wrote to the Head of Inspection asking about the debt under the law -- a so-called tax demand. If we did not agree with the demand, we could have appealed the administrative report."

Malkhaz Enukidze, the judge said, "In this particular case, I consider the Tax inspection Department's fear that Guraspashvili could grant the property to another person in order to avoid the tax quite reasonable. It could have seriously harmed the Tax Inspection Department… However, the court hearing did not find any debts of Sinatle. Nonetheless, I also consider that it is easy to count the damages to the Tax Inspection Department. Thus, I think that the decision should be fulfilled as soon as possible to avoid further problems."

Guraspashvili thinks that the authority prosecuted him because he is a member of the opposition party. "I sell electricity to the people for seven tetri. While the Energy Company sells it for double the price to the people. My victory means a victory for local industry. However, it will cause problems for the State Energy Company, which was sold to the foreign investors."

Saba Tsitsikashvili, Gori