New Delhi (dpa) – India's Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a government plea to review a previous ruling that British telecom firm Vodafone should not pay a tax bill of 2.5 billion dollars for its 2007 acquisition of Indian operator Hutchison Essar. Indian authorities imposed the tax bill and an equal amount in penalties on Vodafone for not paying capital gains tax on the 1.1-billion-dollar acquisition of a majority stake in India operations of Hong Kong-based Hutchison Whampoa. Citing lawyers for Vodafone and the government, the IANS news agency said the Supreme Court had rejected the plea. In a case closely watched by foreign investors, three judges ruled in January that Indian tax authorities have no jurisdiction over transactions carried out abroad. Indian tax authorities on Friday filed a petition asking the Supreme Court to review its January verdict, arguing that the tax liability from the acquisition was unrelated to taxes paid by Vodafone India Ltd. In his federal budget presented in parliament on Friday, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee proposed changes to tax laws retrospectively to 1963 that would tax overseas deals involving assets in India. Business leaders have criticized the proposal saying it would create an impression of India being an investor unfriendly country. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/ozKBK Tags: India, Supreme Court, Telecom, Vodafone Section: South Asia, Tech
