A Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia has waived off the 1 per cent court fee on the Income Tax Department on the Rs 25 billion deposited by Vodafone International Holdings. This was after Goolam E. Vahanvati, attorney general representing the government gave an undertaking that the government would not make a claim of unjust enrichments.
Thereafter, the bench stated that under such circumstances, charging of one per cent commission can be done away with.
In December 2010, the government had requested the Supreme Court to waive the fee for letting it withdraw Rs 25 billion deposited by Vodafone. Instead, it had requested the court to direct Vodafone to submit an additional Rs 250 million, so that the government could obtain the full amount of Rs 25 billion.
Vodafone had deposited the sum as court fee for the adjudication of its appeal against the government’s demand of over Rs 110 billion in taxes for its deal to buy Hong Kong-based Hutchison Telecom.
On November 15, 2010, the Supreme Court had asked Vodafone to deposit Rs 25 billion, along with a bank guarantee of Rs 85 billion, before it within 8 weeks for adjudication of its suit.
The court had also stipulated that the government can withdraw Rs 25 billion on an undertaking by the Directorate General of International Tax (DGIT) that if the verdict goes in favour of Vodafone, then it will refund this amount with interest. As the government approached the Supreme Court to withdraw the funds deposited by Vodafone, it was asked to deposit 1 per cent of Rs 25 billion as commission under a set of rules.
