Vodafone seeks extension to respond to I-T Dept's notice

In the ongoing Vodafone versus the taxman case, November 16 i.e. today was the deadline for the company to respond to the taxman's showcause notice and Vodafone wants more time, reports CNBC-TV18's Ashwin Mohan.

CNBC-TV18 had first reported this development late last Friday and Vodafone has officially confirmed the development today. The taxman had sent a notice to Vodafone on October 30 and wanted a response by November 16. For any company to respond to a 531-page showcause notice that includes almost 140 new case laws is a daunting task.

So this request for an extension was widely expected and that has been officially confirmed by Vodafone today. Sources tell us that the tax department sought to understand the reason behind the initial request for Vodafone to respond to the notice by January 2010. So there were certain differences between both the parties.

Here is what they have decided to do during the course of this week. What we understand from sources is that Vodafone will prepare a schedule of activities regarding their response to the showcause notice and this schedule of activities will be prepared and provided to the Income Tax Department by Vodafone within this week and the I-T department will officially respond regarding the date of reply after having examined this schedule of activity which has been prepared by Vodafone. Net-net, no official date as yet regarding the reply.