SC dismisses Vodafone’s Rs 4,760 crore tax refund claim

The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed telecom major Vodafone's plea seeking Income Tax refund of over Rs 4,000 crore in assessment years between 2015-16 and 2017-18.

A bench of Justices U U Lalit and Vineet Saran, however, granted partial relief by saying the amount of Rs 733 crores for assessment year 2014-15 should be refunded to the appellant within four weeks.

Vodafone has moved the SC seeking refund of Rs 4759.07 crore of the assesment year of  2014-15 to 2017-18, along with interest. 

While asking the IT to refund of Rs 733 crore to Vodafone Idea, the court directed the government to process the plea related to remaining years at the earliest. 

The 2014-18 tax cases pertained to the period when Vodafone group of companies in India underwent merger and restructuring of its entities. 

Vodafone is already struggling to clear its adjusted gross revenue dues (AGR) to government as it could pay Rs 6854 crore as against Rs 58,254 crore.