The Supreme Court on Monday listed the Vodafone case to November 15 at the request of the company, which wanted more time to study the Rs 11,218-crore income tax notice it had got on Friday.
The notice is for tax on the equity deal of 2007 in which Vodafone took control of Hutchison Essar in India.
The bench, headed by Chief Justice S H Kapadia, also allowed the Bombay High Court to hear Vodafone’s case against the income tax department for terming it Hutchison Telecommunication International’s agent for the transaction.
The tax department had raised the demand on Vodafone International Holdings BV, treating it as an assessee in default for failure to deduct tax as required before making a payment of $11,076 million (about Rs 55,000 crore) to Hutchison Telecommunication International Ltd. Following the 2007 transaction, Hutchison Essar was renamed Vodafone Essar.
According to Vodafone, no tax was payable by the company in India as the transaction took place outside the country.
When the company moved the SC last month, the court had declined to stay the Bombay HC’s ruling, which had upheld the tax department’s contention. The Chief Justice had told Vodafone counsel Harish Salve that if it wanted a stay, it had to pay part of the tax claim.
Since the exact figures were not available then, the court asked the tax authorities to compute the liabilities within four weeks. The revised claim was slightly less than what was claimed earlier. However, the company on Monday asked for time to verify the calculation.