[Satellite TODAY 03-16-11] The Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA) voiced support for an Indian High Court ruling issued in late February in Dehli, which determined that the charges foreign satellite operators receive from their customers cannot be characterized as royalties.
    The ruling stems back to a 1997 legal action involving AsiaSat, where an Indian assessment officer held the company to be taxable in India on the ground that it was using its signals from the company’s satellites for the consumption of end users in India.
    “The High Court’s decision in India has focused urgent attention on the region’s dynamic satellite broadcasting industry,” CASBAA CEO Simon Twiston Davies said in a statement. “India’s satellite market is growing at an astounding rate, but non-domestic satellite operators have been forced to deal with tax litigation in the country for more than a decade. How this latest decision will affect the satellite sector in India has yet to be seen, but it is very good news for the industry.”