ACT taxes ruled illegal

The ACT Government says a Federal Court ruling that its utilities tax is invalid will make it harder to bring the Territory Budget back to surplus.  The tax charges for the use of Territory owned land by utility networks and is budgeted to raise about $18 million a year.  The Queanbeyan City Council took ACTEW to the Federal Court alleging the ACT Government had invalidly imposed duties of excise on Canberra's water authority.  ACTEW had been charging the council a utilities tax since 2007 and a water abstraction charge since 2000.  The council has been withholding the abstraction charge from ACTEW which costs Queanbeyan ratepayers more than $3 million a year.  Yesterday the Federal Court ruled the tax was an excise duty and therefore made the act it was established under invalid. But it found the water abstraction charge was not a tax and therefore is a legally legitimate levy.