Thursday, November 21, 2019

Apex Court directs Ncell to pay Rs 21.10 billion

The Supreme Court has directed Ncell to pay Rs 21.10 billion as capital gains tax (CGT) on the buyout deal of the telecom service provider, against Rs 39.06 billion fixed by the Large Taxpayers' Office (LTO).
According to the full text – of its August 25 verdict – released today, the court has directed the telecommunications company pay Rs 21.10 billion as CGT. An extended bench of five-member panel of justices Tej Bahadur KC, Purushottam Bhandari, Dambar Bahadur Shahi, Sushmalata Mathema and Manoj Kumar Sharma reduced the payable tax amount by Rs 17.96 billion. The judges had scrapped the tax liability determined by Large Taxpayers’ Office, stating that additional fees, imposed as per Section 120 (A) of the Income Tax Act, should not be part of Ncell’s total tax liability.
The Supreme Court (SC) – on August 25 – had given a ruling in Ncell’s favour in a case filed by the private telecom against Large Taxpayers’ Office (LTO) for imposing Rs 62.63 billion as applicable CGT on buyout deal of the Ncell. The LTO had officially fixed Rs 62.63 billion as applicable CGT – on April 16 – and had ordered Ncell to deposit Rs 39.06 billion, as the telecommunications company has already deposited Rs 23.57 billion as CGT and late fee.
But Ncell – on April 22, two days before the expiry of the seven-day deadline – had moved the apex court seeking annulment of the LTO decision for fixing Rs 39.06 billion as the balance of the CGT assessment including fines and interest – based on Sections 117 (1) A, 117 (1) C, 118, 119 and 120 (A) of the Income Tax Act – for the sale of its shares to Axiata Investment UK Ltd. Ncell claimed that it needed to pay only Rs 14.5 billion as CGT and not Rs 39.06 billion.
The Ncell had maintained that the tax assessment was against the SC verdict handed down by a larger full bench led by Chief Justice Cholendra SJB Rana on February 7, 2019. In its petition, the Ncell argued that the LTO's tax assessment violated constitutional rights and is against the SC verdict. Ncell also claimed that it was not given any information about the tax assessment nor was it asked for any tax filing before the tax was assessed.

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