Case Law Details
Vodafone Essar Gujarat Ltd (Company Petition No. 183 of 2009)
In a recent ruling Gujarat High Court (HC) in the case of Vodafone Essar Gujarat Ltd (hereinafter referred to as VEG/ Transferor/ Tax Payer) [Company petition no. 183 of 2009] on the issue of whether a scheme of demerger of infrastructure assets between group companies for ‘Nil’ consideration could be sanctioned under the provisions of the Indian Tax law (ITL) and Indian Company law (ICL).
The decision of the HC discusses various aspects with regard to the validity of the scheme of demerger u/s 391-394 of the ICL, ITL, Indian Contract Act 1872, laws governing commercial taxes like VAT, Stamp Duty etc.
The HC concurred with the objections placed by the Tax Authority and rejected the scheme of demerger which was viewed as an attempt to evade taxes including income-tax, stamp duty, VAT and to defraud the Tax Authority for its legitimate right to recover its dues out of the assets of the Taxpayer and other group companies. The HC also agreed that the assets were being demerged to a paper/conduit company for a subsequent tax neutral transfer to another infrastructure company.
Contentions of the Tax Authority
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