Internet companies seek to pay govt Rs 5 lakh each as rent, HC disagrees

Panaji: The high court of Bombay at Goa on Tuesday did not agree to the All Goa Internet Service Providers Association’s request to deposit Rs 5 lakh per member towards rentals instead of 20% of their dues for using the electricity department’s infrastructure to string their cables. Earlier, the court had asked internet service providers (ISP) to deposit 20% of the dues with govt, after which the latter would consider their applications to use the electricity department’s infrastructure for the purpose.
When the petition came up for hearing on Tuesday, the association’s advocate Abhijit Gosavi told the high court that its members were ready to deposit Rs 5 lakh each. He also told the high court that if they were forced to pay the demands raised by the electricity department, which run into crores of rupees, nine of the 10 ISPs that are part of the association would have to shut shop.
The high court, however, did not agree. The association consequently said it would amend its petition.
Meanwhile, cable TV operators will be heard by the high court on Wednesday. When the petition filed by the Goa Cable TV Networking and Service Providers association came up for hearing on Tuesday, advocate general Devidas Pangam said the problem was two fold: One was that the cable TV operators hadn’t paid their arrears, and the second was that they did not have any permit to string their cables from light poles.
He told the court that they were supposed to pay licence fees from 2021 onwards and insisted that they clear 20% of their arrears, following which govt would consider their applications.
The association’s advocate, however, told the high that the cable TV operators were very small players and could only pay around 10-20% of the rentals minus the penalties imposed on them.
In its application to the high court, the association submitted that it has 240 cable TV operators as its members, whose income is derived from digital cable, television viewing and broadband services to customers. It added that there are at least 1.5 lakh users of digital cable television and 50,000 users of broadband services provided by both, members and non-members who are also cable operators.