NEW DELHI, June 8 (Reuters) – An Indian court on Tuesday considered Vodafone’s (VOD.L) appeal against the country’ tax department and deferred it for further hearing to July 8, the company said.
Vodafone, fighting a tax bill in India from its 2007 purchase of Hutchison Whampoa Ltd’s (0013.HK) mobile business in the country, had filed an appeal with the Bombay High Court on Monday challenging the tax department’s jurisdiction over the tax bill.
Vodafone has not said how much the authorities were seeking, but a person with knowledge of the matter has said it was about 120 billion rupees ($2.6 billion), which is higher than the $2 billion figure estimated by Indian media.
“The court noted the tax department’s undertaking that they will not take any further steps on the matter until the hearing,” a company representative said in a statement.
The tax department had set a hearing on June 14 to discuss the size of the tax bill, Vodafone said last week. [ID:nSGE6530I8] ($1=46.9 rupees) (Reporting by Devidutta Tripathy; Editing by Unnikrishnan Nair)
