INDUS TOWERS LIMITED Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By way of this petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner has prayed for an appropriate writ, direction and order to quash and set aside the impugned show-cause notice issued by the respondent No.3 - Assistant Commissioner of Commercial Tax (3) by which it is alleged that upon amendment of Clause 2.1.1 of the Master Service Agreement (hereinafter referred to as MSA ) entered into between the petitioner and various Telecom Operators across Gujarat, the amount of service income received does not remain to be towards providing of the Passive Infrastructure Service and the petitioner is asked to submit the evidence and reasons as to why the amount received by the petitioner should not be considered as the amount of consideration received by the petitioner towards the transfer of right of using petitioners goods and as to why tax, interest and penalty under the Gujarat Value Added Tax Act, 2003 (hereinafter referred to as GVAT Act ) be not imposed on the petitioners. Thus, according to the Department, the gross receipts of the petitioner from providing the Passive Infrastructure Services in Gujarat is subject to VAT under the GVAT Act.

(2.) The facts leading to the present Special Civil Application and the case on behalf of the petitioners so pleaded in the petition in nut-shell are as under:

(3.) Shri Venkatraman, learned Counsel has appeared on behalf of the petitioners and Shri Kamal Trivedi, learned Advocate General has appeared on behalf of the respondent State authorities.