Vodafone revisited

Glimpses of an international arbitration

It is worth revisiting the Vodafone matter in as much as the Government of India (GoI) is currently in international arbitration with it. Interesting insights are to be derived from the process regarding the efficacy — the do’s and don’t’s — of international taxation. Revisiting its genesis, in 2007, a Hong Kong-based MNE, Hutchison, sold the operating licence of its wholly owned subsidiary in Cayman Islands, to Vodafone’s wholly owned Dutch subsidiary for $11 billion. Thus the transaction was an “indirect transfer” of assets located in India, transacted entirely outside India between two non-resident companies.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and