Essar Oil said on Thursday it had filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking a review of its decision to set aside a Gujarat High Court judgment permitting the company to avail of a sales tax deferral benefit from the state government.
The high court had extended time to Essar Oil for commencing commercial production at the Vadinar refinery, thus making the company eligible to avail of Gujarat’s capital investment incentive to premier/prestigious unit scheme, 1995-2000. On January 17, the apex court had set aside the high court judgment.
Subsequent to the Supreme Court ruling, the state government asked Essar Oil to repay Rs 6,300 crore sales tax, plus interest accrued. Essar Oil, 87 per cent owned by London-listed Essar Energy Plc, had “already made provision for repaying part of the sales tax deferment liability. This liability has been assigned to a third party,” the company had said earlier. As of December 31, 2011, the amount assigned was Rs 1,800 crore. This amount is repayable to Essar Oil to meet any payment of the deferred tax benefit in accordance with the terms of agreement.