Buoyed by its victory over income tax department on December 20 after the Supreme Court on Friday set aside Bombay High Courts order directing the company to pay income tax of Rs 11,000 crore, Vodafone on Tuesday moved the dispute resolution panel, seeking relief from an order sent by the I-T department in.
The draft transfer pricing order asked Vodafone to add an additional income of around Rs 8,500 crore (Rs 85 billion) to its income from Indian operations. "Vodafone disagrees with the transfer pricing issues contained within the draft assessment order it received from the tax authority, and has filed an appeal with the dispute resolution panel. The recent Voda-fone-Hutchison Supreme Court judgment contains several observations which relate to the transfer pricing matter and appear to clearly support Vodafone''s position," the company said in a statement.
The apex court in its verdict had said that income department has no jurisdiction to levy tax on overseas transaction between companies incorporated outside India.
Maintaining that Vodafone has no obligation under section 163 clause 1 (c) of Income Tax Act In a separate judgment Justice K S Radhakrishnan agreed with Chief Justice and Justice Swatanter Kumar saying the companies (Vodafone and Hutchison) are incorporated outside and their transaction outside India has "no underlying nexus" with tax authority here. "Vodafone has no obligation under section 163 clause 1 (c) of Income Tax Act," Justice Radhakrishnan said.
As per the direction of the Supreme Court, Vodafone will get Rs 2,500 crore back with in two months from the Income Tax department. The company had deposited in compliance of its interim order by the High Court.