Once the Taxation Laws (Amendment) Bill goes into effect in 2021, the government will have to pay Rs 8000 crore to four companies, including Cairn Energy, Vodafone, WNS Capital and one more, early next week, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said. The chairman JB Mohapatra under the Tax Law Amendment Act 2021 was passed in Rajya Sabha.
The bill will abolish the retrospective tax provision and abolish all retrospective taxes levied on indirect transfers of Indian assets prior to May 28, 2012.
This means that the tax claims on companies such as Cairn Energy and Vodafone are now being withdrawn.
In an exclusive interview with ANI, the CBDT chairman said, “As far as I know there are four cases. Apart from Cairn Energy, three other cases are WNS Capital, Vodafone and there is another case Rs 8000 crores are paid out as a refund and the refund is without interest. “
Mohapatra said, “The Finance Minister’s statement cites about 17 cases where four cases have been paid as partial claims, and these are the four cases where claims have been paid. There are another 13 cases where claims have been made, but they have not yet been discovered so there will be a simple reimbursement by the Income Tax Department for the payments they made, they will be reimbursed on the change made once passed and given President approval and become law. ‘
Mohapatra said we are trying to end the lawsuit. Bill is passed in Rajya Sabha. Now it is sent back to the Lok Sabha for confirmation, then it goes to the Ministry of Justice and is then notified. We’ll have the new law early next week. “
He said, “This has long been one of the pain points for the ministry. In 2012 this bill came into law. He had his own story. The prospects in tax law are not bad in and of themselves, this retrospectiveness has always been the case. “
“If you remember the history of Section 14A that came in 2001-02, it was changed within two years by issuing a circular and then the rules for Section 14A were also written down by Rule 8 in 2008, but if you do Coming to Section 37, it was amended in the Finance Act 1998 in response to a specific decision by the Bombay Tribunal in the Pranab Construction case in which the Tribunal held that the legal payments to the gangs operating in the Bombay Building Circle were payments from builders up to the idiots and anti-social elements, they might also be eligible for tax deduction. To counter this type of interpretation, a statement was included by the Finance Act of 1998, but it was a 1962 retrospective, “said the CBDT chief .
“The same was done in the case of Section 9 in the Vodafone case. So in retrospect, it’s not always bad. It all depends on a specific point in time and context for retrospectivity to kick in, ”added CBDT boss.
“In the Vodafone case, after the amendment introduced in 2012, it was of the opinion for a long time that decisions made by companies before 2012 should not be affected by the same regulations. Therefore, it was retrospectively reconsidered and the law that formulated in 2012, which was not wrong. It has received very positive reviews from the Indian government due to the change, “added Mohapatra.
The CBDT chairman denied that the change decision was taken under any pressure. He said: “The communication of the items and the reasons why the amendment was tabled were very clearly specified in the Finance Minister’s statement in Parliament and the amendment is not case-specific, it is case-independent. There was no pressure at all “from the formal or informal side to enforce this change.”
The CBDT Chairman said, “It has taken nine years, a lot of thought about why this change was necessary, in order to build trust and reassurance in the interpretation of tax law. This change was tabled, there was absolutely no pressure. The only purpose of the amendment is to make the matter clear and straightforward to the investor community. All thanks to joint leadership at both the bureaucracy and government levels and the political leadership that helped pilot this change, “said the Chairman.
He said, “As far as I can remember, there was no objection to the amendment that was tabled. The government wanted the legal process to run its course. The government also recognizes that the time has come to put right and regain investor confidence to invest in India. “
Mohapatra said, “An important point in the bill is the commitment, which will be unilaterally unambiguous and presented by the opposing party, stating that they will withdraw all appeals and any litigation they have initiated on these issues in any forum, into a global one Forum. In order to benefit from this change, they must not receive any interest. So there is no interest payable on the refunds they are guaranteed. This is part of the agreement that the refund will be made without interest.
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