The Tax Dispute Between GOI And Cairn Energy Deepens

The tax dispute between the Government of India and Cairn Energy deepens, the company starts legal process to seize Air India assets.

Britain’s Cairn Energy has filed a lawsuit in a US court. If the company is accepted in this lawsuit, then it can get the right to seize the foreign assets of Air India. These include other assets including the company’s aircraft.

An international dispute settlement tribunal upheld the company’s side in the tax dispute case of Cairn Energy and the Government of India.

The tribunal had directed the Government of India to return a total of $ 1.72 billion (more than Rs 12,000 crore at the current price) to Cairn Energy.

However, the government has appealed against this decision, considering it to interfere with its sovereign rights.

Three sources involved with the development said that Cairn filed a petition in New York’s southern district court on May 14 seeking permission to seize Air India’s assets.

According to sources, the Government of India has also appointed a team of advocates in the court to present its case in this matter.

Cairn argues that Air India is a wholly Indian government company and it is not wrong to legally call it India’s property.

On one hand, Cairn says that it is taking necessary steps to protect the interests of its shareholders, as the Indian government is not implementing the decision of the International Dispute Settlement Tribunal.

At the same time, the Government of India says that it has the right to protect its interests against any such illegal decision.

Sources say that the Government of India or any of its government companies has not received any notice regarding this yet.

Seven months later, GST Council meeting on May 28, possible to consider removing the corona vaccine from the GST ambit.

The GST Council meeting has been called on 28 May after a long gap of seven months. This meeting through the virtual medium is considered very important.

Many states are demanding the abolition of GST on items related to corona relief, including vaccines. At the same time, consideration of the state’s compensation case is also possible in the meeting.

Recently, in a letter to the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra had said that the GST Council meeting should be held once in three months.

But for the last six months, the Council had asked for the GST meeting. The meeting has not been called. The last meeting of the GST Council was held on October 5 last year.