vodafone idea tax refund: Supreme Court dismisses Vodafone’s $629 million tax refund claim

The Supreme Court dismissed an appeal by Vodafone Group Plc’s Indian unit, seeking a tax refund of Rs 4,760 crore ($629 million) from the government.

A two-member panel headed by Justice U.U. Lalit allowed the return of only Rs 730 crore and dismissed the matter, according to a copy of the judgment on the Supreme Court’s website on Wednesday. The company had moved the court saying the income tax department deliberately withheld the dues since 2018.

The ruling is another setback for the British telecom giant’s Indian arm, after mobile operators in the country lost a case and were asked to pay $19 billion in total government demands. Vodafone Idea Ltd. is struggling to pay $7.2 billion in back fees to India’s government.

The wireless operator, formed by the merger of Vodafone Group’s local unit and billionaire Kumar Mangalam Birla’s Idea Cellular Ltd., hasn’t reported a quarterly profit since announcing the deal in 2017.

The case relates to tax assessments between 2014 and 2018 when the Vodafone group of companies in India underwent a restructuring and merger of subsidiaries.