Decoded: Why Vodafone, Cairn retro tax cases are in for a long haul

A fresh round of legal battles is looming in the retrospective tax cases involving the Vodafone group and Cairn Energy with the government sticking to its stand that bilateral investment treaties cannot override a nation’s sovereign right to tax. The government this week moved the Singapore Court of Appeal, challenging an international tribunal’s verdict that went in favour of the Vodafone group in the decade-long Rs 20,000 crore tax dispute. The government is expected to follow a similar path in the Cairn Energy case in which an international tribunal award earlier this week asked India to pay damages worth around