Reacting to the Centre's move of filing a review petition in the Supreme Court, Vodafone said in a statement that the Supreme Court had “clearly and unambiguously ruled that there was no tax to pay on the Vodafone-Hutchison transaction.” “Vodafone notes the filing of the tax authority's review petition, which will be evaluated by the same Bench that ruled on the Vodafone-Hutchison case,” the company statement said.
Experts had claimed that the ruling could lead to the pending tax disputes — including those deals related to the AT&T-Tata Group in Idea Cellular and Sanofi-Aventis — being resolved in the foreign investors' favour, especially where similar bona fide and international business structuring is done for legitimate commercial purposes.
However, following the verdict, the Finance Ministry had set up a committee to finalise options including filing the review petition.
The Finance Minister Mr Pranab Mukherjee, had consulted the Law Minister, Mr Salman Khurshid, and the Attorney-General, Mr G E Vahanvati, on the issue. The I-T Department had claimed that Vodafone failed to deduct tax at source while acquiring the controlling stake.