Bihar moves to enhance tax for mobile phone towers

In order to help financially strapped urban local bodies, the Bihar government is bringing in the 'Bihar communication towers and related structures rule 2011' to charge a fee from operators who install mobile phone towers either on rooftop or land.

The landowners too would have to pay holding tax for the open space they let out on the rooftop for setting up mobile towers. The holding tax rule is also being amended for this purpose.

''We will soon frame the rule for the purpose of regulation of old mobile towers which have been set up without prior sanction and new ones to be set up within the urban areas,'' deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi told reporters in Patna on Tuesday.

With no rule in force for controlling the old towers, Modi said, ''We have decided to frame the rule to be soon placed before the state cabinet for approval.''

He said the new rule, when implemented, would help urban bodies earn Rs50,000 per tower to be set up by mobile operators towards registration and payment of an additional Rs15,000 per month for every tower.

Modi said although the urban local bodies were empowered to collect tax on their own, owing to certain reasons the tax was not being collected at the desired level. As a result, the urban local bodies were unable to meet even their own establishment cost, he said.