I-T asks Vodafone to pay Rs 11,218 crore

The government on Friday asked Vodafone to pay Rs 11,218 crore (Rs 112.18 billion) in taxes within a month for the acquisition of Hutchison's stake in the telecom joint venture in India in 2007.

"The IT department on Friday issued an order raising a tax demand of Rs 11,217.95 crore on Vodafone International holdings BV treating it as an assessee in default... for failure to deduct tax as required before making a payment of $11,076 million (about Rs 55,000 crore) to Hutchison Telecommunication International Ltd," an official statement said.

The notice was issued following the Supreme Court directive on September 27 to the IT assessing officer to determine and quantify the tax liability of Vodafone within four weeks.

Vodafone had bought majority stake owned by Hutchison in the Hutchison-Essar joint venture offering mobile services in India.