State bound to act in consonance with principles of equality : SC

Staff Reporter  :
In the full text of a judgment the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court has observed that the state is the legal owner of the natural resources as a trustee of the people and although it is empowered to distribute the same, the process of distribution must be guided by the Constitutional principles including the doctrine of equality and larger public good.

However, as they constitute public property/national asset, while distributing natural resources, the State is bound to act in consonance with the principles of equality and public trust and ensure that no action is taken which may be detrimental to public interest, also observed the apex court.

Referring to an Indian judgment, the Appellate Division further said, since spectrum is a scarce resource, it needs to be regulated separately. Spectrum should be distributed using such a mechanism that it is allocated optimally to the most efficient user.

A five-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Hasan Foez Siddique delivered the short verdict on January 10 this year after hearing several appeal petitions filed by the mobile phone operators and government bodies. The full text of the verdict has been released on the SC website recently.

According to the verdict, Grameenphone, Robi and Banglalink, three major mobile phone operators of the country are required to add the Value Added Tax (VAT) to the demanded money for renewing their license and purchasing spectrum. Besides, the operators will not get any VAT rebate facility from the VAT to be paid for the same purposes.

The court said, “VAT paid by the cellular mobile companies on the spectrum fees and the license fees are not rebatable. Spectrum allotted to one cellular phone company cannot be used by others. The cellular phone companies cannot provide service without allocation of spectrum.”

The apex court also opined that the Cellular Mobile Phone Operators cannot deposit the value added tax (VAT) adjusted with different fees demanded by the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) directly to the government exchequer. Rather, the operators are required to add the VAT to the demanded money and pay the same to the BTRC and BTRC shall deposit the same to the Government exchequer forthwith.