Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, who was holding the portfolio of Excise and Taxation, also rejected the PCA's plea seeking exemption from the entertainment tax liability of the forthcoming international match between India and Sri Lanka to be played at the SAS Nagar stadium on July 10.

According to highly placed sources the chief minister directed the department to fix responsibility on the officers responsible for inordinately delaying the collection of tax, when the state was passing through a financial crisis.

The tax of Rs 88 lakh was payable on account of the money collected by sale of tickets during the Indo-Pak match held recently. Another sum of Rs 11 lakh was levied on the finances raised during the Salman Khan andKrishma Kapoor nite.

The Excise and Taxation Commissioner, Sudhir Mittal who was also the treasurer of the PCA had recommended to the government to waive the entertainment tax on the sale of tickets for the coming India-Sri Lanka tie. He was of the view that PCA was a sports body which needed to be encouraged for promoting the game.

But, the Financial Commissioner (Taxation), C L Bains noted that since the PCA was a private body, there was no provision in the rules to exempt it from the tax liability.

Earlier, the chief minister had asked the department to show whether there was any precedent to waive taxes levied on private organisations.

Bains told The Indian Express that responsibility would be fixed on the officers, as directed by the chief minister, for the laxity shown towards the PCA.

The PCA had earlier been in the thick of a controversy with the CBI registering a case against certain bureaucrats for the transfer of government land and collection of funds.

The Punjab UrbanDevelopment Authority (PUDA), which was a major contributor in the project had, at one time wanted representation in the management of the association. But, efforts turned futile, when some cricket-lobby-bureaucrats managed to get themselves posted on coveted posts in PUDA. The former president of the Board of Cricket Control of India (BCCI) Inderjit Singh Bindra, IAS, was the lifetime president of the PCA.