Vodafone given time till March 12 to reply to Indian tax dept

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Vodafone Group Plc has been given time until March 12 to respond to the second attempt of the Indian tax department to examine if its acquisition of Hutchison Essar Ltd falls within the tax jurisdiction of Indian authorities.

The dispute arose after $11.2 billion (Rs51,500 crore) was paid by Vodafone for a 67% stake in Hutchison Essar (since renamed Vodafone Essar Ltd) in 2007 and the deal was approved by the government in May the same year.
According to the tax department, the Cayman Islands transaction was essentially a transfer of an Indian asset and Vodafone should have deducted tax at source when it paid Hutchison.

Consequently, in 2007 itself a show- cause notice was slapped on the company by the tax department asking why it had not done this and it was after this that the company approached the courts.