The Indian Express 27.04.2013
No property tax on mobile towers: HC
The Gujarat High Court Thursday struck down as unconstitutional a
legal provision introduced by the state government that enabled local
institutions of self-governance to levy property tax on mobile towers
while considering them as buildings. A division bench comprising
Justices Akil Kureshi and Sonia Gokani, while passing the judgment, held
that mobile towers were not buildings and ordered the state government
to refund the property tax collected so far from different companies.
The judgment came on a group of petitions by telecom companies
challenging the provision introduced in 2011.
“The state government had introduced Gujarat Local Authorities
Amendment Act, 2011, under the provisions of which local institutions of
self-governance were given powers to levy property tax on mobile
towers,” Shalin Mehta, counsel for one of the petitioners, said.
The petitioners had argued that mobile towers were telegraph, and
not buildings, and so property tax could not be levied on them.
Advocate General Kamal Trivedi, who appeared for the state
government, had argued that these mobile towers were structures and
therefore property tax could be levied on them.
