Cairn Energy tax dispute | Centre asks banks to appoint nodal officer, inform in case of any intimation from Cairn

New Delhi has filed an appeal against the order but the UK based Energy firm has started identifying Indian assets overseas, including bank accounts [File image: Cairn Energy]

The Department of Financial Services, in a letter, asked the state-run banks to appoint a nodal officer amid fears that Cairn Energy may try to seize overseas assets or deposits after winning an arbitration tribunal.

In the letter, accessed by the Economic Times, the department asked the banks to immediately report to Sanjay Kumar, director of banking operations if they receive ‘any intimation/notice/letter’ from Cairn Energy Plc and its subsidiary Cairn UK Holdings.

“Banks are advised to appoint a nodal officer in the case for any future correspondence, and share the name, designation and contact details of the official with us,” Jnanatosh Roy, under secretary, department of financial services, finance ministry, wrote in the letter dated April 27, Economic Times said in a report.

Moneycontrol could not independently verify the report.

After winning the appeal in an arbitration tribunal in The Hague, the Scottish firm has threatened to seize Indian sovereign assets overseas which it can do so in the event of New Delhi failing to return over $1.7 billion that the arbitration tribunal has ordered after rescinding a retrospective tax demand.

New Delhi has filed an appeal against the order but the UK based Energy firm has started identifying Indian assets overseas, including bank accounts, that could be seized in the absence of a settlement, which Cairn says it is still pursuing.

The company has registered its claim against India in courts in the United States, Britain, France, the Netherlands, Singapore and Quebec, moves that could make it easier to seize assets and enforce the arbitration award.