There’s been a mixed reception to the latest news involving Vodafone Idea and the country’s Supreme Court after the troubled Indian operator sought – and won – a refund from the Indian Tax Department.
Depending on your point of view, the Supreme Court either granted Vodafone Idea Ltd partial relief by asking the Indian Income Tax Department to refund the equivalent of about $97.6 million to the company for the assessment year 2014-15, or dealt a grievous blow to the company by not paying the full amount (somewhere in the region of $633 million) it had requested.
The court directed that the smaller amount be refunded to Vodafone Idea within four weeks.
It seems that a further refund is not certain but by no means out of the question as Vodafone Idea’s refund request also included the assessment year 2017-18. However, the court will need to agree that the claim actually has merit.
Nevertheless this is a modest boost to Vodafone Idea’s coffers, the second it has received this year. Vodafone Group, a parent company of Vodafone Idea, recently injected $200 million into the Indian company as an accelerated payment to help it manage its operations.
However, Vodafone Idea still owes somewhere in the region of $6.8 billion of its adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues to the government.
