India Unlikely to Appeal Vodafone and Shell Tax Cases In a sign - TopicsExpress

India Unlikely to Appeal Vodafone and Shell Tax Cases In a sign the countrys new government may be following through on its pledge to rein in heavy-handed tax authorities, government officials said Thursday that they may not appeal the recent large tax cases India has lost against Vodafone Group PLC and Royal Dutch Shell PLC. In separate but similar cases, the Bombay High Court recently ruled that neither Vodafone nor Shell would have to pay more taxes on money paid for the a transfer of share of their Indian subsidiaries. The government isnt interested in keeping the matters under litigation for long, and is unlikely to appeal to a higher court, officials told The Wall Street Journal. The Government will abide by the high court decision, a senior finance ministry official said. This government is eager to promote ease of doing business in India, the official said. Confusing and sometimes conflicting tax regulations and unpredictable enforcement of them are among the biggest reasons India doesnt attract as much investment as China and some other Asian economies, international executives say. Prime Minister Narendra Modi won national elections in May after campaign pledges to make it easier to do business in India. His finance minister, Arun Jaitley, has vowed to end what he dubbed tax terrorism. Mr. Modi is trying to trigger a wave of investment in Asias third-largest economy through his Make in India campaign, but executives say they want more proof he will make tax collection more fair and predictable before they invest billions in India. Vodafone and Indian tax authorities have been locked in two tax huge tax cases for years. A court in Mumbai ruled in favor of Vodafone in one of its cases earlier this month. The Mumbai court last month rejected the authorities claims that Vodafone priced the sale of shares in its Indian companies to other arms of Vodafone in a way to avoid taxes. Tax authorities had been seeking more than $500 million. India has 90 days from the Oct. 10, high-court ruling, to appeal the Vodafone decision. That would mean it has until Jan. 10. Shell won a similar case earlier this month, in which the court rejected tax officials claims that Shell mischaracterized a 2009 share transfer from its Indian unit to the parent to avoid taxes on more than $2.5 billion that India says should be considered income. Shell said it valued the deal properly. Vodafone officials werent immediately available for comment. A spokesman of Royal Dutch Shell in India declined to comment.