Telecom service provider Airtel on Tuesday moved the Bombay High Court challenging the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporations (BMC) decision to levy property tax on its mobile towers set up on flyovers. In its petition,the company has claimed that the imposition of the tax is illegal and ultra vires. In April 2008,the company was permitted to set up the equipment on electric poles on flyovers after the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) invited tenders for the same. The equipment cannot by any stretch of imagination be treated as premises or being capable of being occupied as contended by the respondents (BMC), the petition states. Such antennae and electronic equipment are not and cannot be treated as new buildings and be independently liable to be assessed, the company further contends. The company moved the court after it received a notice on November 15 this year from BMC asking it to pay tax from April 1,2009 to March 31,2012. The petitioners claimed they are also being levied water tax,sewerage tax and education cess on the equipment. Arguing for the petitioner,senior counsel Fredun De Vitre said,The entire basis of the tax is the notion that the property can be occupied,which is not the case here. Also,the antennas that have been put up are completely movable and are not permanently affixed in any way. The lawyer also noted that the corporation does not charge a similar tax on the pole itself. However,BMC lawyer Komal Punjabi replied that it does not do so as it belongs to the government. Responding to the petition,Justice S A Bobde asked if similar tax is levied on telephone towers of government-owned companies. The case will now be heard in January.
