Cairn Energy Plc of the UK on Monday said it expects the long-running arbitration process against the Indian authorities over retrospective taxation to be more protracted than originally anticipated and is unlikely to be concluded before late 2019.
An international arbitration tribunal in August last year concluded main court hearings in the British company's challenge to the Indian government using retrospective legislation to seek Rs 10,247 crore in taxes.
The tribunal was supposed to give an award by February 2019 but the same is now expected not before the end of the year.
Cairn Energy in a statement said it had last month written to the three-member panel seeking guidance on the likely timing of the arbitration award.
"The Panel has now responded that although it remains mindful of Cairn's need for a swift decision, given its workload and the number of matters before it, it is still unable to provide specific guidance on timing," the statement said. "As a result of this, Cairn expects that the timetable for issuing the award will be more protracted than originally anticipated and is unlikely to be before late 2019."
Cairn Energy received a draft assessment order from the Indian Income Tax Department in March 2015 and subsequently filed a notice of dispute under the UK-India Investment Treaty in order to protect its "legal position and shareholder interests."
"When the parties appeared before the Tribunal in December 2018, the Panel advised that it had not been able to advance the award as expected due to the number of procedural matters that had been brought before it since the August hearings, and that it is was not in a position at that time to give guidance to the parties on the expected timing of the issuance of the award."
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