Supreme Court Directs Income Tax Department To Refund Rs. 753 Crore To Vodafone-Idea

Giving some relief to Vodafone-Idea, the Supreme Court has asked the Income Tax department to refund Rs. 753 crore to telco within four weeks. The operator has approached the court and requested to direct the Income Tax department for a refund for the estimated years 2014 to 2018, which is close to Rs. 4,759.07 crore.

However, the court has asked to refund the amount for only 2014-15 year as it has been finalized. "In so far as AY 2014-15 is concerned, the final assessment order passed under Section 143(3) of the (Income Tax) Act indicates that the appellant (telecom firm) is entitled to refund of Rs 733 crore; while for AY 2015-16 there is a demand of Rs 582 crore," the court said in a judgment.

This means that the telecom operator will get only a refund for 2014-15, which is Rs. 753 crore. Apart from that, the court has asked the department to clear this matter as soon as possible. "Except for the directions as indicated, we see no merit in any of the contentions advanced by the appellant (Vodafone). This appeal is, therefore, dismissed without any order as to costs," the judgment added.

This will give some relief to the operator as it is trying to survive in the Indian telecom industry, ever since Reliance Jio started its operations. Reliance Jio is just a four-year-old company, and now it is leading the telecom sector. The operator has actually forced small telcos to leave the industry, and now a deal with Facebook will further affect the business of Airtel and Vodafone-Idea.

Massive AGR Dues On Vodafone-Idea

The operator is also struggling to clear its average gross revenues dues. For the unaware, the telco has to pay Rs. 53,000 crore dues to the ministry. It includes license fees, penalty dues, and spectrum usage charges. The AGR issue has always been an issue between operators and the Department of Telecommunication (DOT). Last year, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of DOT and asked operators to pay 1.4 Lakh crore AGR dues.

It is worth mentioning that, Vodafone Plc has recently invested $200 million in its merged entity in India, and if we talk about the loss, then the operator has reported a loss of $ 6.74 billion.