Issues related to the proposed free trade agreement (FTA) and bilateral investment treaty between India and the UK are expected to figure during the three-day visit of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to London from April 8-10, official sources said. The minister will attend a host of meetings, including the India-United Kingdom Economic and Financial Dialogue, in London.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday said the rules that will lead to scrapping of the retrospective tax demands made on companies such as Cairn Energy Plc and Vodafone Plc will be framed soon. Parliament earlier this month passed a bill to scrap all tax demands made using the 2012 retrospective tax legislations. The bill provides for government refunding the retro tax to companies provided all legal challenges are withdrawn.
India is in the process of filing an appeal against an arbitration panel asking it to return $1.2 billion to British oil firm Cairn Energy Plc, sources said on Wednesday. If enforcement proceedings are initiated, India is confident to address them and will strongly defend its interests, the sources said, adding it is open to a constructive settlement of tax disputes within the existing legal framework. India is in the process of filing an appeal in the Cairn's arbitration award case, they said, adding in this case, it was well within India's sovereign powers to redress the situation of Double Non-Taxation and tax abuse. Cairn chief executive Simon Thomson had last month met the then finance secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey to discuss the arbitration award.
State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp on Monday said UK's Cairn Energy Plc cannot sell a majority stake in Cairn India to Vedanta Resources without its consent.
A day after agreeing to sell majority stake in its India subsidiary for $8.48 billion, UK's Cairn Energy Plc top management on Tuesday met Oil Minister Murli Deora and other key officials to clear any regulatory roadblocks to the deal with Vedanta Resources.
Cairn India on Friday said its UK-based parent Cairn Energy Plc is unlikely to exit completely from the company.
British energy firm Cairn Energy Plc on Thursday said it will pay all taxes due, both in India and the United Kingdom, on the $8.48 billion it will gain from selling a majority stake in its Indian arm to Vedanta Resources.
The Finance Ministry on Monday said Cairn Energy Plc is likely to pay close to $1 billion as capital gains tax on the $8.48 billion it expects to get from selling majority stake in its India arm to Vedanta Resources.
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Cairn India said it has always been fully compliant with all Indian income tax laws.
The government will settle almost all the retrospective tax cases this month, closing a chapter that plagued India's reputation as an investment-friendly destination, a top official said on Friday. A 2012 amendment that gave taxmen powers to go back 50 years and slap capital gains levies wherever ownership had changed hands overseas but business assets were in India, was used to raise Rs 1.1 lakh crore demand against multi-nationals such as telecom group Vodafone, pharmaceuticals company Sanofi and brewer SABMiller, now owned by AB InBev, and Cairn Energy Plc. Such demands brought uncertainty in the minds of investors.
Vedanta's Cairn Oil & Gas on Thursday announced the appointment of Nick Walker as the new chief executive officer (CEO) of the company. In a statement, the company said the appointment is effective January 5. "Before this appointment, Walker was president and chief executive officer at Lundin Energy, one of the leading European independent E&P companies," it said.
UK's Cairn Energy Plc has won an arbitration against the Indian government levying Rs 10,247 crore in retrospective taxes, the company said on Wednesday. The three-member tribunal, which also comprised a judge appointed by the Indian government, ruled that India's claim of Rs 10,247 crore in past taxes over a 2006-07 internal reorganisation of Cairn's India business was not a valid demand, sources said. The tribunal asked India to pay the funds withheld along with the interest to the Scottish oil explorer for seizing dividend, tax refund, and sale of shares to partly recover the dues.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday indicated the government's intent to appeal against an arbitration panel asking India to return USD 1.4 billion to UK's Cairn Energy Plc, saying it is her "duty" to appeal in cases where the nation's sovereign authority to tax is questioned.
Mining magnate Anil Agarwal's conglomerate on Friday announced a major business shake-up, with flagship Vedanta Ltd approving a spin-off of its metals, power, aluminium and oil and gas businesses into separate listed entities and an overhaul of lucrative zinc unit planned as part of value creation and reducing debt load. Vedanta will issue one share of the five demerged businesses for every share held in the company, the firm said in a statement. The entire exercise, which would require shareholder and lender approval as well as a nod from the stock exchanges and courts, is expected to be completed in 12-15 months, its president for finance Ajay Agarwal said.
Cairn Energy Plc chief executive Bill Gammell described the 30-minute meeting as 'positive and constructive'.
Government wants Cairn India to agree to pay royalty and cess on its all important Rajasthan block.
Net profit in 2012 was $72.6 million, compared with $4.56 billion profit in 2011, Cairn said in a statement.
More than three weeks after it announced the sale of a majority stake in its Indian arm to Vedanta Resources, UK's Cairn Energy Plc has formally applied to the government for approvals, saying it will meet all contractual requirements needed to fructify the deal.
Cairn Energy, which owns a 52.11 per cent stake in Cairn India, "has voted to accept (government) conditions", the company said.
The Edinburgh-based firm's current application seeking the nod for sale of 40 to 51 per cent in Cairn India, for up to $8.48 billion, has left out three producing properties, including the giant Rajasthan oilfields.
The $9.6-billion deal is contingent upon government nod as the deal involves change of ownership of strategic assets like the giant Rajasthan oilfields.
Whereas, the group is offering Cairn India's parent Cairn Energy Rs 405 a share, which includes a fee for not competing with it in India, Sri Lanka and Bhutan for the next three years.
The government has written to market regulator SEBI saying Cairn Energy Plc's deal to sell majority stake in its Indian arm to Vedanta Resources does not yet have its approval, a condition contingent for the $8.48 billion deal to consummate.
With Cairn Energy Plc voluntarily offering to meet government conditions, the Oil Ministry may find it difficult to nix its deal to sell majority stake in Cairn India to Vedanta Resources.
Billionaire Anil Agarwal-owned mining firm Vedanta Resources on Thursday said it is in talks to buy a stake in Cairn India, the company that owns the nation's largest onland oilfield.
A day after the government referred its $9.6 billion deal to a panel of ministers; UK's Cairn Energy Plc on Thursday said it has extended the deadline for completion of the sale of a majority stake in its Indian unit to Vedanta Resources by over a month to May 20.
More than three months after announcing the sale of its up to 51 per cent stake in the Indian unit to Vedanta, Cairn Energy Plc on November 23 last year had made a conditional application to seek government's nod but refused to accept partner ONGC's rights.
London-listed mining group Vedanta Resources is running against time to close a USD 9.6 billion deal to acquire majority stake in Cairn India as government approval for the transaction is held up due to issues raised by state-owned ONGC.
ONGC, which is 30 per cent partner in Cairn India- operated Rajasthan oilfields, is obliged to pay royalty on entire crude oil produce from the blocks, even though its share is just 30 per cent.
ONGC sought opinion from the second highest law officer of the country after its partner Cairn Energy Plc stated that the UK firm's sale of majority stake in Cairn India to Vedanta Resources will not trigger pre-emption rights of the state- owned firm, a top oil ministry official said.
ONGC, which is a 30 per cent partner with Cairn India in the giant Rajasthan oil field, had claimed that it had preemption or right of first refusal in Cairn India assets, like the Rajasthan block.
Edinburgh-based Cairn said its Alpha-1S1 well in the sea between Greenland and Canada found oil over a 400 meter section and encountered gas reserves, the company said.
UK's Cairn Energy Plc on Tuesday said it will seek shareholder nod for sale of majority stake in its Indian arm, Cairn India, to London-listed Vedanta Resources Plc for up to $8.48 billion on October 7.
Cairn Energy Plc's deal to sell a majority stake in its Indian arm to Vedanta Resources for up to $8.48 billion is contingent upon the billionaire Anil Agarwal-led group completing an open offer to minority shareholders of Cairn India, a senior official said.
Market regulator SEBI has not yet approved the open offer made by Vedanta Group to Cairn India shareholders, even as the target company formed a two-member panel to look into the offer made to minority shareholders.
The company sent the reminder on September 10, ONGC said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange. Vedanta is offering $8.48 billion to buy up to a 51 per cent stake in Cairn India, which has 10 oil assets in the country, including the giant Rajasthan oilfield.
While UK's Vodafone Group fights its tax liability in courts, British firm Cairn Energy Plc on Wednesday said it will pay all taxes due, both in India and the United Kingdom, on the $8.48 billion sale of a majority stake in its Indian arm to Vedanta Resources.
The UK-based Cairn Energy on Monday said it will sell 51 per cent stake in its Indian unit to mining firm Vedanta Resources Plc for $8.48 billion.
The company plans to begin drilling in Bihar's Gangetic basin by next year. It has completed the seismic surveys and is currently studying the data collected to understand the geological structures below the surface.
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.
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