I-T dept slaps Rs 3900cr tax order on Aditya Birla Grp cos

Aditya Birla Telecom and Idea Cellular are now under the tax department’s scanner, with notices adding up to Rs 3,900 crore, reports CNBC-TV18's Aakansha Sethi.

Aditya Birla Telecom, the subsidiary of Idea Cellular, has demerged licenses in Bihar and Jharkhand to Idea Cellular. The tax department says that though this qualifies as a demerger as per the Company’s Act, as per the Income Tax Act it doesn’t because the Section 219AA of the Income Tax Act says that when there is such a demerger, then the entire assets of the company have to be transferred to the resulting company. Also read: 3G roaming pact: Bharti seeks stay on Delhi HC order Also, shares have to be issued on a proportionate basis by the resulting company.  However, Aditya Birla Telecom continued to hold 16 percent in Indus Towers, a three-way joint venture between Vodafone, Bharti Airtel as well as Idea Cellular. Hence, two tax notices were sent, one to Aditya Birla Telecom for Rs 2,400 crore and to Idea Cellular for Rs 1,500 crore. Idea has said that it may consider challenging this order because it is not a correct interpretation of the Income Tax Laws.