Vodafone says it paid Rs 22,300 cr to public finances in India in FY14

New Delhi: British telecom major Vodafone today said its Indian arm has contributed over £2.2 billion (about Rs 22,300 crore) to public finances, including taxes, for financial year ended 31 March 2014. “In 2013-14 our direct and indirect contributions to Indian public finances exceeded £2.2 billion,” Vodafone today said in its report on tax and its total contribution to public finances. [caption id=“attachment_2069535” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Paying public finances. AFP[/caption] The company paid £254 million, about Rs 2,536 crore, directly as taxes, £1,088 million (Rs 10,863 crore ) as non-tax, indirect revenue contribution of £893 million (Rs 8,916 crore) to Indian government, as per the report. Vodafone also made capital investment of £715 million (Rs 7,139 crore) in India, it added. “Vodafone has become one of India’s largest investors: we have spent more than £12.8 billion in building our business in the country since 2007. We are also one of the country’s largest taxpayers,” the report said. The company at present is involved in a Rs 20,000 crore tax dispute with Indian government pertaining to its acquisition of Hutchison share in 2007 in a telecom joint venture Hutchison Essar. It was through this acquisition Vodafone entered Indian market. Vodafone maintained that it has no tax due in the deal and it has filed for arbitration under the bilateral investment treaty between the Netherlands and India (the Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement) in an effort to resolve the dispute on 17 April 2014. “Since then, both the Indian government and Vodafone have appointed arbitrators, however, we have yet to agree on a third arbitrator who would be the chairman of the international tribunal,” Vodafone said. On Wednesday, Indian government had decided not to appeal against a court ruling which had set aside the tax demand on Vodafone in transfer pricing case. Globally, the company paid contributed £14.75 billion in cash to the public finances in countries where it operates which is up from £13.5 billion in 2012-13. “This includes a year-on-year increase of more than £300 million in direct taxes paid to European governments and an increase of nearly £1 billion in government revenues in the AMAP region from non-taxation-based sources such as spectrum fees,” Vodafone said. PTI