Vodafone row gave India bad name: Hans Raj Bhardwaj

NEW DELHI: Former law minister and veteran Congress member H R Bhardwaj on Saturday criticized the previous UPA government's decision to levy tax on Vodafone over its purchase of Hutchison Essar telecom services, saying that it brought disrepute to the country.

“In a globalized world we need to have a liberal attitude towards multinational companies and firms. Vodafone tax dispute was a case which brought bad name for our country . Such kind of dispute could have been amicably settled,“ he said.

He said that a system must be put in place in the country to settle such disputes quickly to send a positive signal to other companies who want to invest in India. “If we want to become a model country then we must have efficient disputeresolution system and effective and quick arbitration can play a crucial role.“ Vodafone had won a fiveyear legal battle against Indian tax authorities in 2012, with the Supreme Court dismissing a $2.2 billion tax demand raised by the income tax Department over its acquisition of Indian mobile assets in 2007.

Bhardwaj, however, said that at present arbitration as a dispute-resolution mechanism is not effective in India, forcing firms to go to Singapore and other countries to get their dispute resolved. “Commercial disputes should be handled on priority basis. It is not happening in the country as powerful people have grabbed the arbitration proceedings and they take many years to resolve the disputes. Even those cases which I referred 10 years ago are still pending,“ he said.Speaking on a conference on International Arbitration and Dispute resolution, the former law minister favoured allowing of foreign legal firms to practice in the country.

UPA taxed Nokia out of Chennai: TN govt

The Tamil Nadu government on Saturday blamed the erstwhile Congress-led UPA government's tax policies for the suspension of production by Finnish mobile handset maker Nokia at its plant in Chennai but said it was trying to find a solution to the issue. “Nokia had faced some problems (in TN). This is not because of the state government, but because of retrospective taxes which were imposed on companies by the previous central government,“ state industries minister P Thangamani said.