Essar Oil bank accounts released by govt

Having complied with the Supreme Court direction by depositing Rs 1,000 crore with the Gujarat government, Essar Oil on Friday saw its frozen bank acounts being released by the state government.

Essar Oil Limited (EOL) on Friday was informed by the office of Assistant Commissioner of Commercial Tax, Jam Khambaliya, Jamnagar, of release of the bank accounts frozen on July 9, 2012. As per the order, the bank accounts have been rendered operational with immediate effect.

Early this month state government's sales tax department had attached five bank accounts of EOL in Jamnagar district and recovered about Rs 4 crore as a part of pending sales tax recovery of close to Rs 8,800 crore. Following the attachment of their bank accounts, the company had approached the Supreme Court for relief.

 

The Apex Court had directed Essar Oil to first pay Rs . 1,000 crore to the Gujarat Government towards sales taxVAT dues by July 30. If this amount is paid, the court further directed that no coercive steps will be taken by the government against Essar.

EOL has sales tax dues with the state government to the tune of Rs 6,300 crore plus over Rs 2,000 crore as interest and penalty. The recovery of dues was initiated following SC order in January this year where it was held that EOL was not eligible for benefit under the sales tax deferment scheme of government.