The Indian government has paid Cairn Energy Plc Rs 7,900 crore to refund taxes it had collected to enforce a retrospective tax demand, ending a seven-year-old dispute that had tarred the country's image as an investment destination. The company, which is now known as Capricorn Energy PLC, in a statement said it has received "net proceeds of $1.06 billion", of which nearly 70 per cent will be returned to the shareholders. The tax department had used a 2012 legislation, which gave it powers to go back 50 years and slap capital gains levies wherever ownership had changed hands overseas but business assets were in India, to seek Rs 10,247 crore in taxes from Cairn.
Italian Premier Matteo Renzi also expressed satisfaction with the Indian Supreme Court's decision.
Moily said several gas fields of both RIL and state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp were economically unviable to produce at current rate of $4.2 per million British thermal unit.
The high court directed the central government counsel to file a statement in response to the plea and listed the matter for hearing after two weeks.
Wadia group-owned Go First will temporarily suspend flights on May 3 and 4 amid severe fund crunch, the airline's chief Kaushik Khona said on Tuesday.
Siva group defaulted on payment in 2016 and is also facing CBI investigation
Former Wimbledon and French Open champion Simona Halep had her four-year doping ban cut to nine months.
Kalanithi Maran claims deal with Ajay Singh is dead; SpiceJet spokesperson says Maran's claims are baseless and false
India and China have so far held 19 rounds of talks to resolve the boundary dispute.
the SC said, "We want that adequate compensation be paid to the victims' family".
The scheme offers waiver of interest, penalty, and prosecution for settling tax disputes.
Maran had sought attachment of SpiceJet promoter Ajay Singh's shares by an administrator unless the payment was made.
West Bromwich Albion manager Tony Pulis said on Friday he was disappointed to have lost a High Court battle last week after being ordered to pay 3.7 million pounds ($4.66 million) to his former club Crystal Palace in a dispute over the way he left.
A New York court has paused Cairn Energy's pursuit of US assets of Air India for the recovery of $1.2 billion arbitral award, so as to allow the British firm to reach a settlement with the Indian government on the long drawn dispute. The New York district court delayed the tax suit to November 18, according to court documents reviewed by PTI. This follows Cairn Energy and Air India jointly asking the court to stay further proceedings in view of the fresh government enacting a fresh law to scrap retrospective taxation in the country.
Moving quickly towards ending a retrospective tax dispute with a firm that gave India its largest oilfield, the government has accepted Cairn Energy PLC's undertakings which would allow for the refund of taxes, sources said. Meeting the requirements of the new legislation that scraps levy of retrospective taxation, the company had earlier this month 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 has now accepted this and issued Cairn a so-called Form-II, committing to refund the tax collected to enforce the retrospective tax demand, two sources with direct knowledge of the development said.
Britain's Cairn Energy Plc has dropped lawsuits against the Indian government and its entities in the US and other places and is in the final stages of withdrawing cases in Paris and the Netherlands to get back about Rs 7,900 crore that were collected from it to enforce a retrospective tax demand. As part of the settlement reached with the government to the seven-year old dispute over levy of back taxes, the company - which is now known as Capricorn Energy PLC - has initiated proceedings to withdraw lawsuits it had filed in several jurisdictions to enforce an international arbitration award which had overturned levy of Rs 10,247 crore retrospective taxes and ordered India to refund the money already collected. Two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said Cairn on November 26 withdrew the lawsuit it had brought in Mauritius for recognition of the arbitration award and took similar measures in courts in Singapore, the UK and Canada.
The government has been taking steps to promote cashless or digital transactions to take India towards a less-cash economy
The Union government's offer of settling the retrospective taxation case with Cairn Energy may hinge on Vedanta withdrawing the ongoing arbitration from the Singapore Tribunal on the same issue. The government has offered to refund Cairn Energy Rs 7,900 crore that it had collected under the retrospective tax demand on fulfilment of certain conditions, including withdrawal of pending litigation and furnishing of an undertaking to the effect that no claim for cost, damages, interest, etc., would be filed. This condition is also part of the Taxation Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021, passed by Parliament recently.
The government on Thursday brought a bill in the Lok Sabha to withdraw all back tax demands on companies such as Cairn Energy and Vodafone and said it will refund the money collected to enforce such levies.
China has taken a position of non-acceptance and non-participation on the jurisdiction by the International Court of Arbitration in a case the Philippines has brought against China's claims to nearly all of the South China Sea, Abraham Denmark, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence for East Asia, told lawmakers at a Congressional hearing.
"It is here that the examination and trial has to be held. But a big foul play has been held in this case right from the beginning by the Centre. We were against the Centre's approach before also and we had strongly criticised it," Vijayan said.
Go First's lenders have agreed in principle to support the airline's request for Rs 400 crore interim funding to restart its operations. The airline temporarily halted operations on May 2, and its insolvency plea was admitted by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on May 10. On Wednesday, the airline's resolution professional Shailendra Ajmera submitted a business plan and a request for over Rs 400 crore funding to airline's committee of creditors (CoC).
The Supreme Court on Wednesday suspended all court proceedings in India relating to the trial of two Italian marines in connection with the 2012 killing of two fishermen off Kerala coast.
The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Wednesday admitted Go First's voluntary plea to initiate the insolvency resolution process against the airline. A two-member bench comprising President Justice Ramalingam Sudhakar and L N Gupta also appointed Abhliash Lal as interim resolution professional (IRP) to run the debt-ridden company. It has also put the company under protection of moratorium and directed the suspended board of directors to assist the IRP to run the company during insolvency proceedings.
Amazon has filed a legal challenge at the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) against the Competition Commission of India's (CCI) suspension of the US e-commerce giant's 2019 deal with Future Retail (FRL). Amazon has challenged the CCI order on at least five grounds, and the matter is likely to be listed this week, according to the sources. Parallelly, Amazon's Indian unit has approached the Supreme Court against a halt on an arbitration case against Future Retail's (FRL) asset sale to Reliance Industries (RIL).
The Singapore-based arbitrator, SIAC, has rejected Future Retail's plea to lift the interim stay on its Rs 24,713-crore deal with Reliance Retail, giving a major relief to Amazon that is contesting the transaction. The development comes a day after the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) held that Future Retail is a party to the ongoing arbitration between Amazon and Future group in the dispute over the sale of its assets to Reliance Retail. Future had contended before the SIAC that it should be excluded from arbitration proceedings because it is not a party to the dispute between its promoter Future Coupons Pvt Ltd (FCPL) and Amazon.
The Indian State does not believe in the rule of law. It does not even recognise the need to follow treaties that it itself signed. And so it is refusing to shell out to Cairn; and, as a consequence, has brought on the Paris humiliation, notes Mihir S Sharma.
RIL and Shell ceased production from the fields in 2016, and ONGC has already been using Tapti infrastructure for its other fields for better optimisation.
Days before Sony Group pulled the plug on the $10 billion deal, Zee group founder Subhash Chandra had written to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, blaming Sebi for trying to "scuttle" the merger of its flagship media firm Zee Entertainment Enterprise with the Japanese firm and subsequent investment in the merged entity. Alleging market regulator Sebi is "acting with a predetermined mind", the Zee group patriarch requested the finance minister to take the necessary steps "to safeguard the interest of the minority shareholders of Zee". Chandra in his letter dated January 16, seen by PTI, said Zee and all other people have been cooperating in the investigation related to the alleged fund diversion by promoters and expressed concern over a new notice issued by the market regulator to former directors of Zee.
Jaitley said the tribunal has confirmed Italy's obligation to return Sergeant Girone to India in case India's jurisdiction over him is established.
Russia's anti-doping agency (RUSADA) still has significant work to do to get its suspension lifted, the World Anti-Doping Agency said on Monday.
The levy of retrospective tax on the UK's Cairn Energy Plc is a tale of bizarre twists and turns that saw its attached shares being sold in May 2018 amid the passing of the baton from a full-time finance minister to interim one and the talks at the highest level to resolve the dispute, to claims that levy of back taxes was a result of an investigation into Panama Papers leak. The government late last month refunded about Rs 7,900 crore it had collected from selling residual shares of the British firm in its erstwhile India unit, seizing dividend and withholding tax refunds, to settle an eight-year-old dispute that had tarred the country's reputation as an investment destination. But, this did not come about easily. For seven years, the establishment vehemently justified in courts and outside seeking of Rs 10,247 crore in back taxes plus interest and penalty from a firm that gave India its biggest onshore oil discovery.
Courts in five countries including the US and the UK have given recognition to an arbitration award that asked India to return $1.4 billion to Cairn Energy plc - a step that now opens the possibility of the British firm seizing Indian assets in those countries if New Delhi does not pay, sources said. Cairn Energy had moved courts in nine countries to enforce its $1.4 billion arbitral award against India, which the company won after a dispute with the country's revenue authority over a retroactively applied capital gains tax. Of these, the December 21 award from a three-member tribunal at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Netherlands has been recognised and confirmed by courts in the US, the UK, Netherlands, Canada and France, three people with knowledge of the matter said.
From Ranbaxy to Religare, Aashish Aryan takes you through a maze of legal cases involving Malvinder Mohan Singh and his younger brother Shivinder Mohan Singh. Both are in police custody following a complaint of fund siphoning.
There is considerable speculation as to whether this award would have any bearing on another Vodafone-type case, namely, the ongoing tax-related arbitration proceedings with Cairn Energy.
The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on Thursday issued notices over the petition filed by e-commerce major Amazon, challenging a recent order passed by the fair trade regulator CCI that suspended the over-two-year-old approval for its deal with Future Coupons Pvt Ltd (FCPL). The appellate tribunal has directed the Competition Commission of India (CCI) and FCPL to file their reply in next 10 days and Amazon to file a rejoinder over it. It has directed to list the matter on February 2, for next hearing.
Culver Max Entertainment, formerly known as Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI), has terminated merger agreements with Zee Entertainment, which could have otherwise created a USD 10 billion media enterprise in the country.
UK-based Cairn Energy PLC on Tuesday said it will drop litigations to seize Indian properties in countries ranging from France to the US, within a couple of days of getting a USD 1 billion refund resulting from the scrapping of a retrospective tax law.
Cairn Energy has threatened the Indian government that it is looking at executing the favourable $1.2 billion international tribunal award in the retrospective taxation case by seizing India's overseas assets.