{"id":94201,"date":"2016-12-26T18:32:40","date_gmt":"2016-12-26T13:02:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/?p=94201"},"modified":"2017-02-27T16:02:58","modified_gmt":"2017-02-27T10:32:58","slug":"state-legislatures-are-competent-to-levy-taxes-on-mobile-towers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2016\/12\/26\/state-legislatures-are-competent-to-levy-taxes-on-mobile-towers\/","title":{"rendered":"State Legislatures are competent to levy taxes on mobile towers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Supreme Court:<\/strong> While relying upon Anant Mills Co. Ltd<\/em>. v. State of Gujarat<\/em>, (1975) 2 SCC\u00a0175<\/a>, the Division Bench of Rajan Gogoi, Prafulla C. Pant, JJ. held that State Legislatures\u2019\u00a0competency to enact laws to impose taxes on lands and buildings, by virtue of Entry 49, List II of\u00a0the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution, includes the power to levy taxes on mobile towers.\u00a0Gujarat High Court, in an order dated 25.04.2013, had declared Section 145A of the Gujarat\u00a0Provincial Municipal Corporations Act, 1949, that provided for levying of taxes on mobile\u00a0towers, as ultra vires the Constitution. Taxes were also imposed on mobile towers under the\u00a0Bombay Provincial Municipal Corporations Act, 1949, on the reasoning that towers are\u00a0\u201cbuildings\u201d as defined in the Act. In reference to both legislations, the mobile operators\u00a0contended that State Legislatures are incompetent to impose taxes on mobile towers, since\u00a0mobile towers are covered by Entry 31 of List I (Posts and telegraphs), and are beyond the scope\u00a0of Entry 49 of List II (Taxes on lands and buildings).<\/p>\n

Supreme Court observed that even if a mobile tower is covered by Entry 31 of List I, the State\u00a0Act could still provide for a levy of taxes on mobile towers, if mobile towers can come within\u00a0the ambit of \u201cland and building\u201d in Entry 49 of List II. The Court further noted that a broad,\u00a0liberal and expansive interpretation is to be preferred as to the meaning of an Entry. Therefore,\u00a0the expression \u2018land\u2019 not only includes the surface of the ground, but also everything on or over\u00a0or under it, and general word like \u2018building\u2019 must be construed to reasonably extend to all\u00a0ancillary and subsidiary matters, and shall not be confined to a residential building, as commonly\u00a0understood. Thus, a state law levying taxes on mobile towers can trace its source to Entry 49,\u00a0List II of the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution. [Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation<\/em> v. GTL\u00a0Infrastructure Ltd.<\/em>, 2016 SCC OnLine SC 1490<\/a>, decided on December 16, 2016]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Supreme Court: While relying upon Anant Mills Co. Ltd. v. State of Gujarat, (1975) 2 SCC\u00a0175, the Division Bench of Rajan Gogoi, <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":154914,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-casebriefs","category-highcourts"],"yoast_head":"\nState Legislatures are competent to levy taxes on mobile towers | SCC Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2016\/12\/26\/state-legislatures-are-competent-to-levy-taxes-on-mobile-towers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"State Legislatures are competent to levy taxes on mobile towers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Supreme Court: While relying upon Anant Mills Co. 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