Government to refund Rs2,500 crore to Vodafone: Salman Khurshid
20 Mar 2012
The government will return Rs2,500 crore collected as deposit along with accrued interest to telecom service provider Vodafone following the Supreme Court's dismissal of its review petition in the Rs11,000-crore ($2.2 billion) tax case, law minister Salman Khurshid said.
Speaking to reporters after a meeting of a group of ministers called by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee this evening, he also said the government does not intent to file a fresh ''curative'' petition in the SC.
''No curative petition to my knowledge. I suppose government will have to refund Vodafone money," he said.
Curative petition is the last judicial remedy available with the government.
The meeting of the GoM was attended by home minister P Chidambaram, telecom minister Kapil Sibal and attorney general GE Vahanvati, among others.
The Supreme Court had, in its 20 January judgement, set aside the Bombay High Court ruling of 2008 and directed the income tax authorities to refund the Rs2,500 crore deposited by Vodafone International Holdings within two months along with 4 per cent interest.