A mobile tower on a building in Patna. Telegraph picture

Patna, March 1: Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) has asked cellphone operators to furnish details like the exact number, location and date of installation of mobile towers in the capital.

Shailesh Chandra Diwakar, officer on special duty, PMC, said the mobile firms were given 10 days’ time to provide all the details with documentary evidence.

The exercise is being carried out to collect taxes from them as notified by the Bihar Communication Towers and related Structures Rules (BCTRSR), 2012, which recently came into force.

“Earlier, we had asked them to provide these details within three days when the letters were issued a few days back. They, however, sought a month’s time. Now, we have agreed on a 10-day extension. The details will help us establish since when the towers were installed and we will charge the companies with retrospective effect accordingly,” said Diwakar.

According to officials, there are around 500 mobile towers in the municipal area of the capital and most of them are installed in densely inhabited residential areas.

However, civic officials said mobile service providers have not been paying fee to the PMC even though Bihar Municipal Act, 2007, makes it mandatory for them to get registered with PMC and pay specified registration and annual charges.

This has resulted in heavy losses to the corporation in the past five years even as the cash-strapped civic body has been struggling to even pay its employees.

Equipped with the new rules, the corporation, however, has now decided crack the whip on the defaulting firms.

According to BCTRSR, telecom firms have to pay Rs 50,000 as registration fee for each installation and Rs 15,000 as annual renewal fee to the municipal corporation.

“While the total registration and renewal fee will amount to Rs 15 crore, the fine and interest will double up the total outstanding amount. We are expecting to collect over Rs 30 crore from the mobile companies,” said a senior corporation official and added that any telecom firm ignoring the executive orders of the civic body could see their towers sealed.

Earlier, Sheshank Shekhar Sinha, the executive officer of the New Capital circle of PMC, had said residential buildings with mobile towers would now be treated as commercial buildings and would have to pay holding taxes accordingly.