IT dept-Nokia tax case: HC seeks more details from Nokia

The Delhi High Court today sought details of Nokia's offer to the Brazilian government to settle its tax demand in that country while hearing its plea for lifting of the stay on transfer of its assets here in view of its USD 7.2 billion global deal with Microsoft.
Nokia India Private Ltd's assets and accounts were frozen by the Income Tax department for alleged income tax evasion by the company.
The high court had defreezed the company's bank accounts but had upheld the freeze on the transfer of its assets.
Appearing before the bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and Sanjeev Sachdeva, Nokia's counsel said if the tax row was not resolved by December 12, its Finnish parent company Nokia Corp's deal with Microsoft may land in trouble.

Nokia's counsel told the bench that in a similar tax matter in Brazil, an offer was made to the authorities there in the nature of bank guarantees, but they were only to the tune of 5 per cent of the total tax demand in that country.
Here in India, the company was offering to deposit Rs 2250 crore in cash, the counsel said.
On the court's query during the hearing if the Nokia Corp is ready to give any undertaking before this court, after seeking instruction from its client Nokia India, the lawyer said the Finnish company would be "happy to give" a letter of guarantee for its own liabilities, but not for those of its Indian firm whose assets would be sold to Microsoft post the deal.

Nokia also said it has invested Rs 1,858 crore in the country since 1994, and its total assets in India were worth above Rs 2,300 crore.