New York: Defending move to appeal against the Bombay High Court verdict in the Rs 8,500-crore Vodafone transfer pricing case, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said the case had nothing to do with retrospective tax issue and no company is immune from paying taxes.
“Why should the government not file an appeal when it thinks that it is an appealable order,” he told ET Now. Jaitley was responding to a question on the tax department deciding to challenge an October 8, 2015 decision of the Bombay High Court in the Supreme Court through a Special Leave Petition (SLP). “There are important questions of law which go to the Supreme Court.
This case has nothing to do with the retrospective tax issue,” said Jaitley. Vodafone had got favourable verdicts from the Bombay High Court in two tax cases last year.
The first one pertained to the High Court rejecting tax authorities claim that Vodafone priced the shares of its stakes in its Indian companies sold to other arms of Vodafone in a way to avoid taxes.
The Income Tax Department had sought Rs 3,000 crore in taxes. In the second case, the High Court had ruled that the Department did not have the jurisdiction on the sale of Vodafone’s call centre business to Hutchison Whampoa Properties and assignment of call options to Vodafone International Holdings BV in 2007-08.