The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed the Income-Tax Department's plea seeking a three-month extension of the deadline for refund of the Rs 2,500-crore deposit to Vodafone.
The application was made early last month in anticipation of the proposed amendments in the Union Budget 2012-13 to tax Vodafone-Hutch type deals.
“Since the amount (around Rs 2,500 crore) withdrawn by Union of India (from the Supreme Court Registry after Vodafone had deposited it) has been returned (to Vodafone) with interest in terms of our judgement dated January 20, 2012, nothing survives in this I.A. (interim application) and the same is dismissed as infructuous,” the apex court said.
Also, the bank guarantee (for around Rs 8,500 crore) has been returned to Vodafone, it noted.
The I-T Department had refunded the deposit amount with interest to Vodafone on March 20 itself, when the apex court dismissed the Centre's review plea. This was because March 20 was the deadline for refunding the deposit as per the apex court's directions.
The I-T Department had raised a demand of over Rs 11,000 crore on Vodafone's $11.2-billion indirect acquisition of Hutchison's Indian telecom assets in 2007. But in its January 20 order, the apex court had ruled that Vodafone is not liable to be taxed on the deal. The court had also dismissed the Centre's review plea challenging that order.