A senior company executive said the company waited for seven years for the verdict and its shareholders needed to know when it would be concluded.
The government on Tuesday confirmed that a French court has ordered the freezing of certain Indian assets in Paris on a petition by Britain's Cairn Energy, which is seeking to recover $1.72 billion from New Delhi after winning an arbitration against retro tax. Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha said the government has filed an appeal against an international arbitration tribunal overturning levy of Rs 10,247 crore in back taxes on Cairn Energy. "Yes sir, an order has been passed by a French Court freezing certain Indian government properties in the case pertaining to Cairn Energy," he said.
Billionaire Anil Agarwal's mining group Vedanta on Monday said it has withdrawn cases in the Delhi high court as well as before an international arbitration tribunal to settle a Rs 20,495 crore retrospective tax dispute with the government. Post slapping of a Rs 10,247 crore tax demand on UK's Cairn Energy Plc for alleged capital gains made on a 2016 internal reorganisation prior to the listing of its India business, the Income Tax Department had sought Rs 20,495 crore in taxes (including penalty) from Cairn India for failing to deduct tax on capital gains made by its British parent. Cairn India was in 2011 bought by Agarwal's group and subsequently, the firm was merged with Vedanta Ltd.
UK-based Cairn Energy PLC on Wednesday said it has agreed to drop litigations to seize Indian properties in countries ranging from France to the UK as it has accepted the Indian government's offer to settle tax dispute relating to the levy of taxes retrospectively. Meeting the requirements of new legislation that scraps levy of retrospective taxation, the company has given required undertakings indemnifying the Indian government against future claims as well as agreeing to drop any legal proceedings anywhere in the world. The government now has to accept this and issue Cairn a so-called Form-II, that will commit it to refund the tax collected to enforce the retrospective tax demand.
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Cairn India said it has always been fully compliant with all Indian income tax laws.
The government is likely to file an appeal against the Cairn arbitration award contesting its sovereign rights to tax, sources said.
Cairn has slashed its planned capital expenditure (capex) by 60 per cent to $500 million against the earlier $1.2 billion.
During a series of hectic talks between Cairn Energy and the Indian government over the $1.2-billion arbitration award in favour of the former last week, a slew of options was proposed by the two sides, including computation of capital gains and participation in the Vivad se Vishwas (VsV) dispute resolution scheme. The government is likely to go ahead and appeal against the arbitration award by a Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague before March 21, indicated finance ministry officials. Cairn Energy Plc on Sunday said it was hopeful that an acceptable solution to its tax dispute with the Indian government could be found to avoid prolonging and exacerbating the 'negative issue' for all parties.
The exploration company will buy back shares from January 23 and extinguish them.
Cairn faces a potential tax demand on an alleged Rs 24,500 crore of capital gains it made when in 2006-07 it transfered all its India assets to a new company, Cairn India.
Top management of firms should be summoned for a few specified reasons and after written justification at a senior level.
Murthy no more chairman emeritus; founders do not want to be addressed as promoters.
Cairn, which is sitting on a cash pile of about $3 billion, in a statement said its board has approved buying 17.09 crore shares or 8.9 per cent of the total shareholding, from open market at no more than Rs 335 apiece.
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