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Govt drops UPA attempt to challenge fiat on Vodafone

January 29, 2015

vadafone tax

New Delhi, Jan 29: In a clear signal to global investors that India has moved to a fair and transparent tax regime, the government on Wednesday revoked the former United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government’s decision to challenge in the Supreme Court a Bombay High Court ruling in favour of Vodafone.

The decision not only gave the world’s second largest telecom firm a relief of Rs 3,200 crore in a tax dispute case with the government, but also sought to harbour hopes among 20 such multi-national companies facing similar disputes in India.

The Cabinet decision came just two days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the presence of US President Barack Obama assured the world investment community that India was moving fast on removing all ambiguities in its tax regime.

“This fruitless litigation could have been avoided by the previous government. We are only correcting the legacies of the past,” Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters after the Cabinet meeting.

In a 2010 case, the Income Tax (I-T) department had asked Vodafone to pay additional tax of Rs 3,200 crore stating that the telecom firm had undervalued its shares in its Pune BPO, Vodafone India Services, while transferring them to the parent company in Britain.

The tax authorities later issued a show cause notice against the company in January 2014 and passed an order asking it to pay the tax.

Vodafone then moved the Bombay High Court against the I-T department decision. The court said in its order in October 2014 that the UK-based telecom firm was not liable to pay income tax demanded in the case relating to transfer pricing.

Vodafone, the largest corporate investor in India, is facing several other tax disputes in the country.

“Investors’ confidence has been shaken in the past because of the very fluctuating tax policy. The government wants to convey a clear message to investors world over that this is a government where the decisions will be fair, transparent and within the four corners of the law,” the telecom minister said.

Reacting to the decision, Vodafone’s counsel said: “The government’s change of heart is a good massage to global investors”. But he maintained that the people were actually waiting to see a change on the ground and a change in the “mind set” of the tax department.

After talking to hundreds of CEOs at the India-US Business Summit two days ago, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said that he and the prime minister took pains to explain it to investors that India was seriously working on a investor-friendly tax administration.

*Decision not to file appeal taken at the highest level following advice by Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi

*Will help other MNCs like Dutch oil major Shell

*Shell too had got a favourable judgment in a transfer pricing case from Bombay HC

*Transfer pricing is the practice of arm’s length pricing for transactions between group companies based in different countries

*Decision to bring greater clarity and predictability for taxpayers and tax authorities

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News Network
February 13,2020

New Delhi, Feb 13: Arvind Kejriwal wrote to Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal on Wednesday, staking claim to form the government in the national capital, sources said, while hinting that the AAP might not invite senior leaders and chief ministers of other parties for the oath-taking ceremony.

The sources said it was the formal process by the AAP chief, who was elected as the legislature party leader earlier in the day, to stake claim for forming the new government.

Kejriwal, who returned to power in Delhi with a stunning poll victory on Tuesday, will take oath as chief minister for the third consecutive time on February 16.

While the oath-taking ceremony will be open to the public, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was considering not inviting leaders and chief ministers of other parties as it did not wish to be seen as a "confrontationist" against the BJP-led Centre, the sources said.

They, however, added that the party was yet to take a decision on it.

The AAP has planned mobilisation of people for the mega event and all the newly-elected MLAs of the party have been asked to ensure huge participation from their constituencies.

"I request the people of Delhi to attend the oath-taking ceremony of the chief minister at the Ramlila Maidan in large numbers," senior AAP leader Manish Sisodia told reporters, adding that the ceremony will start at 10 am.

The AAP won 62 seats in the 70-member Delhi Assembly, while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) bagged the remaining eight seats. The Congress drew a blank for the second consecutive time in the Delhi polls.

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Agencies
January 9,2020

Noida, Jan 6: A fire broke out at the ESIC Hospital in Noida on Thursday morning and firefighting was underway, officials said.

The blaze broke out in the basement of the seven-storey hospital building located in Sector 24, a police official said.

Fire tenders were rushed to the spot after the Fire Department was alerted about it around 8 am, the official said.

After that, a search was done to see if anyone was trapped in the building, he said.

The cooling process is now underway.

He said the fire had engulfed the ground, first and second floors of the building, except the basement.

Police said they received information about fire at Kaveri printing press at 2:45 am, when the manager Yogesh called them. The press owners have been identified as Atul and Anuj Goyal, residents of Sukhdev Vihar, they said.

The man who died in the fire has been identified as Phool Dev, from Bihar, who used to work as a help there. Dev went inside the building in the night to sleep before the fire started and died due to suffocation, the fire department official said.

The body has been kept at Lal Bahadur Shastri Hospital and the post-mortem will be done once the family reaches here, police said.

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Agencies
February 5,2020

New Delhi, Feb 5: Days after a gunman opened fire in Delhi's Shaheen Bagh, the epicentre of anti-CAA movement, YouTuber Gunja Kapoor was detained at the protest site on Wednesday after she was caught covertly filming the protests in a burqa.

Kapoor runs the channel ‘Right Narrative’ on YouTube and her pinned tweet on Twitter says she is followed on the microblogging site by PM Narendra Modi.

According to police, the protesters turned suspicious after Kapoor asked them "too many questions". She was caught by some of the women protesters after they identified her as the popular YouTuber. The incident led to a commotion at Shaheen Bagh, the epicentre of protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), a senior police official said.

She was taken to Sarita Vihar police station where her identity was ascertained, police said.

The incident sparked outrage on social media. Many took to Twitter to question why Kapoor was at the protest in disguise. Others expressed concern about her motives at secretly filming the protests.

Meanwhile, praises flew in for the women of Shaheen Bagh who can be seen defending Kapoor from angry protesters after she was caught.

This is not the first time that a right wing social media activist has landed in trouble in Shaheen Bagh where residents and other women and children have been sitting in protest for nearly two months since the passing of the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 in December last year.

In January, Deepa Sharma had posted videos online about the "traumatic" experience she had when she was allegedly heckled and harassed by Shaheen Bagh protesters. While the woman's claim could never be verified, other pieces of rampant fake news aimed at delegitimising and villainising protesters has taken social media by storm.

From doctored videos of women protesters allegedly accepting they were paid Rs 500 to attend protests to alleged fights over biriyani and anti-India sloganeering, trolls on social media seem to be working overtime to taint the ongoing protests.

The latter, however, show no signs of giving up. In fact, as Delhi nears elections on February 8, protesters have arranged for music performances by eminent artists, including pop celebrity Prateek Kuhad, till February 7.

Sit in protests take place 24x7 with women showing up in thousands to spend the night and sing songs of protest. And with polls around the corner, the protests have become an active part of political discourse with Aam Aadmi Party's Manish Sisodia expressing his support for the protesters at a recent press conference.

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