SC dismisses review petition in Vodafone tax case:
It is yet another setback for the government in the Vodafone tax case -- the Supreme Court today dismissed the review petition filed by the central government in the tax case. With this the apex court retained its earlier ruling of no tax liability in Hutch-Vodafone transaction.
The Supreme Court dismissed the tax department's plea seeking a review of the court's ruling in January that Vodafone Group was not liable to pay any tax on its acquisition of Indian mobile assets, a lawyer on the case said.
Vodafone won a five-year legal battle against the Indian tax authorities in January as the country's top court dismissed a USD 2.2 billion tax demand raised over the British mobile phone giant's acquisition of Indian mobile assets in 2007.
The tax office last month filed a petition seeking a review of that judgment.
Will Vodafone be slapped with a new tax?
That is quite possible because they have moved a retrospective amendment. Clearly they have put in a validation clause in the finance bill saying that this over rules any court judgment.
So, the fact that the review petition has been dismissed today leaves the government with only two options,
one is to file a curative petition and the second is for a fresh tax amount to be slapped.
Another thing to remember is, the inance bill is now the property of the house. So, if the Parliament decides to pass the finance bill, which has a retrospective amendment, which has the validation clause in it and which has also changed the law of limitation to 16 years of foreign assets, then if you look at all these three aspects its is to enable and facilitate the government to be able to file a fresh tax demand.
We have also spoken to Vodafone's lawyers on this and they have said that if that happens they will again take the matter to court. So even though the petition may have been dismissed today, its certainly going to go this way or the other.
Source: www.moneycontrol.com
FDI up by 92% in January to $2 billion:
India received $2 billion foreign direct investment in January, showing an annual growth of 92% and taking cumulative inflows to $26.19 billion for April-January period of the current fiscal.
In January 2011, the country received foreign direct investment (FDI) worth $1.04 billion.
Experts feel if reforms are pushed, there is much more potential for attracting increased foreign investment.
"There is an urgent need for strong reforms like 100% FDI in sectors like multi-brand retail and insurance. There is a need to boost investor confidence. $2 billion in month is not a big number," Ficci Secretary General Rajiv Kumar said.
The sectors which received large foreign FDI inflows during the 10-month period this fiscal are: services ($4.83 billion), pharmaceuticals ($3.20 billion), telecommunication ($1.99 billion), construction ($2.23 billion), power ($1.56 billion) and metallurgical industries ($1.65 billion).
Mauritius remain the top source of inflows ($8.91 billion), thanks to the double taxation avoidance treaty.
Other sources were Singapore ($4.30 billion), Japan ($2.75 billion), UK ($2.75 billion), Germany ($1.46 billion), Netherlands ($1.16 billion) and Cyprus ($1.31 billion).
FDI inflows into India totalled $19.42 billion in 2010-11 financial year, down from $25.83 billion in 2009-10.
Recently, the government has liberalised the FDI regime and allowed overseas investment in bee-keeping and share-pledging for raising external debt.
Besides, the conditions for FDI in construction of old-age homes and educational institutions have been eased.
These will not be subject to the minimum and built-up area, capitalisation and lock-in period norms as applicable for the construction activities.
Source: www.dnaindia.com
It is yet another setback for the government in the Vodafone tax case -- the Supreme Court today dismissed the review petition filed by the central government in the tax case. With this the apex court retained its earlier ruling of no tax liability in Hutch-Vodafone transaction.
The Supreme Court dismissed the tax department's plea seeking a review of the court's ruling in January that Vodafone Group was not liable to pay any tax on its acquisition of Indian mobile assets, a lawyer on the case said.
Vodafone won a five-year legal battle against the Indian tax authorities in January as the country's top court dismissed a USD 2.2 billion tax demand raised over the British mobile phone giant's acquisition of Indian mobile assets in 2007.
The tax office last month filed a petition seeking a review of that judgment.
Will Vodafone be slapped with a new tax?
That is quite possible because they have moved a retrospective amendment. Clearly they have put in a validation clause in the finance bill saying that this over rules any court judgment.
So, the fact that the review petition has been dismissed today leaves the government with only two options,
one is to file a curative petition and the second is for a fresh tax amount to be slapped.
Another thing to remember is, the inance bill is now the property of the house. So, if the Parliament decides to pass the finance bill, which has a retrospective amendment, which has the validation clause in it and which has also changed the law of limitation to 16 years of foreign assets, then if you look at all these three aspects its is to enable and facilitate the government to be able to file a fresh tax demand.
We have also spoken to Vodafone's lawyers on this and they have said that if that happens they will again take the matter to court. So even though the petition may have been dismissed today, its certainly going to go this way or the other.
Source: www.moneycontrol.com
FDI up by 92% in January to $2 billion:
India received $2 billion foreign direct investment in January, showing an annual growth of 92% and taking cumulative inflows to $26.19 billion for April-January period of the current fiscal.
In January 2011, the country received foreign direct investment (FDI) worth $1.04 billion.
Experts feel if reforms are pushed, there is much more potential for attracting increased foreign investment.
"There is an urgent need for strong reforms like 100% FDI in sectors like multi-brand retail and insurance. There is a need to boost investor confidence. $2 billion in month is not a big number," Ficci Secretary General Rajiv Kumar said.
The sectors which received large foreign FDI inflows during the 10-month period this fiscal are: services ($4.83 billion), pharmaceuticals ($3.20 billion), telecommunication ($1.99 billion), construction ($2.23 billion), power ($1.56 billion) and metallurgical industries ($1.65 billion).
Mauritius remain the top source of inflows ($8.91 billion), thanks to the double taxation avoidance treaty.
Other sources were Singapore ($4.30 billion), Japan ($2.75 billion), UK ($2.75 billion), Germany ($1.46 billion), Netherlands ($1.16 billion) and Cyprus ($1.31 billion).
FDI inflows into India totalled $19.42 billion in 2010-11 financial year, down from $25.83 billion in 2009-10.
Recently, the government has liberalised the FDI regime and allowed overseas investment in bee-keeping and share-pledging for raising external debt.
Besides, the conditions for FDI in construction of old-age homes and educational institutions have been eased.
These will not be subject to the minimum and built-up area, capitalisation and lock-in period norms as applicable for the construction activities.
Source: www.dnaindia.com
No comments:
Post a Comment