Vodafone files petition in SC against I-T notice
05 Apr 2011
Vodafone has filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking protection against penal action by the income tax authorities in the $2 billion demand regarding the acquisition of Hutchison's stake in Indian joint venture Hutchison-Essar.
"Vodafone International Holdings BV has filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking to protect itself against a notice recently received from the Indian tax authorities initiating penal proceedings against it", the company said in a statement.
The petition comes in response to an income tax notice to the company a few weeks back saying that penal action would be initiated against the telco in the tax case.
The income tax department has raised a demand for around $2 billion from the company since it failed to deduct tax at the time of acquisition of a majority stake from Hutchinson in Hutchison-Essar in 2007 for over $11 billion.
The tax case, which is pending in the Supreme Court, is to come up for hearing on 19 July.
"It is difficult to understand the rationale behind the tax authorities seeking to impose penalties on a matter, which the tax authorities have themselves described as a test case," the company said in its petition to pre-empt penal action by the I-T department.
