Vodafone free of $2.2 billion Indian tax

When Vodafone acquired, in 2007, the Hong Kong-based Hutchison Whampoa's Indian mobile unit for $11 billion, Indian authorities demanded a $2.2 billion in taxes over the deal that Vodafone had just sealed.

As a consequence, the British telecommunication company filed for a court case, claiming that it acquired a 67% stake in CGP Investments Ltd, a Cayman Islands registered company which held the Indian telecom assets of Hutchison.

Therefore, Vodafone was not subject to any taxes since the Hutchison assets were held by a company based in the Cayman Islands.

But the Indian authorities still demanded that the company has to pay a $2.2 billion and subsequently added 100% of the original bill penalties.

Even though the court ruled in favor of Vodafone at first, in 2012, later that year a new law which allowed firms to be taxed retrospectively was introduced.

Such was the case that Vodafone sought international arbitration to resolve its tax dispute with the Indian government.

Now, India's Supreme Court had ruled that Vodafone does not owe any tax on the deal.