Will not force Vodafone, Cairn to accept offer on retro tax case: FM

New Delhi, March 27

The central government will not force companies to take up its once-only offer to settle their retrospective tax disputes, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Sunday.

"It was an alternative. The choice is theirs. Nobody is being coerced to accept it," he said.

"If they want to continue with the litigation, so be it... the outcome of the litigation will determine (the fate of tax demand)."    

Vodafone and Cairn Energy have challenged the government’s levy of retrospective taxes on them.

UK oil explorer Cairn Energy has been told to pay Rs 29,000 crore — which includes Rs 10,247 crore it is believed to have made on capital gains in a 2006 business reorganisation in its India unit before getting it listed and interest.

 British telecom giant Vodafone has been told to pay Rs 14,200 crore — a figure than includes tax, interest and penalty over its USD 11-billion acquisition of 67 per cent stake in the mobile- phone business owned by Hutchison Whampoa in 2007.

Both the firms have contested the claims.

The central government recently said it was willing to settle tax disputes from June 1. It was however a one-time offer. The companies accepting the offer must also end all arbitration and litigations it had instituted challenging the tax demand. — PTI