Cairn seeks additional $249m relief from India

New Delhi: British oil explorer Cairn Energy plc has added another $249 million to the compensation it is claiming from India after the government set off a tax refund due to it to settle part of a retrospective tax demand. Cairn had before an international arbitration tribunal in July last year sought $5.6 billion in compensation from the Indian government for raising a retrospective tax demand of Rs 10,247 crore on a decade-old internal reorganisation of its India unit. It said the government had raised Rs 18,800 crore as interest on the principal tax demand. The interest demand was quashed by the I-T Appellate Tribunal. “Following that, the Income Tax Department issued a revised demand including interest running from February 2016 i.e. 30 days after the date of the assessment order. That interest currently amounts to $224 million,” it said. PTI