New Delhi: In order to bury the ghost of retrospective tax, Union finance minister Arun Jaitley on Monday made a one-time offer to UK’s Vodafone Group plc and Cairn Energy plc to pay principal amount and get waiver on interest and penalty. Mr Jaitley said the government is committed to implementing the General Anti Avoidance Rules (GAAR) from April 1, 2017.
“In order to give an opportunity to the past cases which are ongoing under the retrospective amendment, I propose a one-time scheme of dispute resolution for them, in which, subject to their agreeing to withdraw any pending case lying in any court or tribunal or any proceeding for arbitration, mediation under BIPA, they can settle the case by paying only the tax arrears in which case liability of the interest and penalty shall be waived,” Mr Jaitley said while presenting the budget. He pointed out that in his last budget, he had assured that this government would not retrospectively create a fresh tax liability. “I would like to reiterate that we are committed to provide a stable and predictable taxation regime. We will not resort to such amendments in future,” said the finance minister.
