Vodafone gets India tax office reminder on $2 bln tax dues

MUMBAI, Jan 5 (Reuters) - British telecommunications carrierVodafone Group Plc said on Saturday it has received areminder from Indian tax authorities on disputed tax dues overits 2007 acquisition of Indian mobile assets. Vodafone, the world's biggest mobile operator by revenue,said in a statement the reminder does not include a deadline forpayment. "Vodafone has replied to this reminder, stating that itcontinues to believe that no tax is payable on the abovetransaction," the statement said. Britain-based Vodafone, the largest overseas corporateinvestor in India, has repeatedly clashed with Indianauthorities over a string of tax and regulatory issues since itbought into the country in 2007. A year ago, India's Supreme Court ruled in favour ofVodafone in a 5-year, $2 billion battle with Indian taxauthorities arising from its acquisition of Hutchison Whampoa's Indian mobile business. The Indian government later amended 50-year-old tax lawsenabling it to make retroactive tax claims on long-concludedcorporate deals. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh set up a panel to review thechanges after global business groups criticised the move. Thepanel has recommended that the law to tax deals retrospectively should be scrapped, but the government is yet to make a finaldecision. Earlier on Saturday, the Economic Times reported that taxauthorities had asked Vodafone to pay 140 billion rupees ($2.5billion), including interest on the tax dues. Last April, Vodafone threatened the Indian government witharbitration proceedings in its fight over the retrospective taxproposal.