Supreme Court rejects Essar Oil's plea in sales tax case

Excerpts from Reporter's Diary on CNBC-TV18 Watch the full show »

The apex court ruled that there's no legal ground to overrule the January ruling which asked the refiner to pay Rs 6,100 crore in sales tax to the state government.

Essar Oil has already set aside Rs 4000 crore toward the liability and is in talks with the Gujarat state government to decide on the terms of the tax payment.

Essar, a unit of London-listed Essar Energy PLC, was granted deferment as part of a Gujarat capital investment incentive program after it decided to build a giant refinery in the Vadinar area.

The government, however, revoked Essar's right to exemption, saying it had failed to complete construction of the refinery within a prescribed time frame.