The Supreme Court on Monday asked Vodafone LLC to deposit Rs 2,500 crore and a bank guarantee of Rs 8500 crore in its ongoing case here in which the U.K. based telecom giant has challenged capital gains tax of Rs 11,000 crore from its acquisition of Hutchison shares.
The bench headed by Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia directed Vodafone to deposit Rs 2500 crore within three weeks and a bank guarantee of Rs 8500 crore within 8 weeks.
The bench, which also comprised Justices K.S Radhakrishnan and Swatanter Kumar, also held that if the case goes in favour of Vodafone then the government will have to return the amount to the telecom giant along with interest.
The apex court would start its final hearing in this matter from Feb 5, 2011.
The apex court also directed the Director General of international taxation to file an undertaking before the court that the government would refund the amount along with the interest to Vodafone if the U.K. based telecom giant succeeds in the case.
