No Utilities Rent for Actew

They also have to look at the substance of the charge, if it takes the form a tax it will be unconstitutional. But then the ACT Government have known since before it was introduced that the tax would likely be ruled invalid if challenged, but that didn’t stop them. It won’t be just $18 million they will be worried about as mentioned in the paper, it’s probably the roughly $60 million they’ve collected over the past 3 or so years that they may have to pay back.

All they need to do is change the work “tax” to something like “rent”.

Still a “rent” on assests in Queenbeyan that the ACT Govermnet does not own wont get up.

ACTEW passing on savings to the consumer? Hahahahaha!

They will have to amend the relevant Act first, for which ACTEW (on behalf of ACT Govt.) hold so dear to their hearts. I tried appealing the requirement to pay water rates on a block of land I owned (rent for 99 years), that had no house, no pipe work and no taps or meters fitted. They had that covered off well with the Water Utilies Act. Mongrels!

housebound: Appealing isn’t a job lot – you can appeal one decision out of several. It’s possible that the Council will appeal the one they lost, and the Government the other (but I’d bet that neither eventuates).

“Will we see our utilities bills going down, or is it a totally different matter?”

Short answer is, (as per usual) it’s a totally different matter.

Sounds like a waste of the courts time. The ACT government will just levy the ‘tax’ somewhere it knows is legal. My guess would be rates, which basically means a win for Queanbeyan, because they don’t pay ACT rates.

So if the ACT government appeals, it could end up losing on the abstraction charge as well.

2006 wasn;t a great year for the ACT Government doing things properly, was it?

The Queanbeyan Council was also challenging the water abstraction charge, but that one was upheld by the court.

Yes, this is the Utility Tax which is imposed on ActewAGL, Telstra, TransACT etc.

It is rather amusing though that Queanbeyan Council took Actew (and through them, the ACT Government) to court over it, rather than a utility taking the ACT Government to court.