Formal proposal m Cairn to settle pute, says Centre
Facing a payout of on-plus interest after an on award went against overnment on Monday as not received any forposal from Britain’s ergy Plc to resolve the thin the country’s legal ork. ree-member internabitration tribunal that ed of one judge ed by India, had in er last year unanioverturned the levy of
Cairn retrospectively ered refund of shares idend confiscated and nds withheld to recover mand. then, Cairn has been India to pay while the ent has looked for posutions within the existework. ritten reply to a queshe Lok Sabha, minister
for finance Pankaj ary said the arbitral trihich had its seat in the on December 31, 2020, favour of Cairn. s asked India to pay n award amount of illion-plus interest and illion towards arbitralegal costs,” he said. New Delhi refusing to instead challenged the efore a court in The ands, Cairn has got the order registered in several jurisdictions and has begun recovering the money by seizing Indian assets overseas.
“An order has been passed by a French court freezing certain Indian Government properties” in Paris, he said. “The same has been communicated through diplomatic channels.” Asked if Cairn has offered any kind of amicable solution to the dispute, Chaudhary said, “No formal proposal for a solution within the country’s legal framework has been received.” He did not elaborate.
In the initial months after the award, the government wanted the dispute to be settled under the ‘Vivad se Vishwas’ Scheme.
The now-closed scheme provided for settling of a tax dispute if the taxpayer pays 50 per cent of the tax demand upfront in return for waiving of penalty and interest as well as the closing of the case.
For Cairn, this would have meant getting about a third of $1.2 billion claim. This because the original tax demand that the government sought from it was ₹10,247 crore—half of this would be ₹5,123.5 crore.
The government had recovered about ₹7,600 crore by selling shares belonging to Cairn, seizing its dividends and withholding tax refunds. Netting it too, the due amount to be paid to Cairn would have been ₹2,477 crore or less than $400 million.