Govt. to comment on Vodafone tax case after reading judgement, says Khurshid

New Delhi, Jan 20 (ANI): With Vodafone winning a Rs. 11,000 crore tax case, nion Law and Justice Minister Salman Khurshid on Friday termed it a unanimous decision of the Supreme Court, and said the government would be able to comment on the verdict only after reading the judgement and analyzing it.

"I have not even read the judgement. I only hear from you that the judgement has come. I just watched it on television that the judgement has come. It is a unanimous judgement of three Judges. We will have to read the judgement, analyze it and then be able to comment on it," Khurshid told media here.

"In fact, even the Finance Minister has not seen the judgement, it concerns his ministries directly. We will get the judgement today and analyze it and then we will be able to comment on it," he added.

To a poser on whether the verdict was a blow to the government's taxation policy, hurshid said: "Everything has two dimensions, one is revenue and you obviously need revenue for government's very important programmes, and the other thing of course is certainty in the law. So, we will have to examine both areas. Certainty in the law and revenue both issues will have to be seen.

The Supreme Court earlier in the day set aside a Bombay High Court judgement asking Vodafone International Holding to pay income tax of Rs 11,000 crore on a deal abroad.

The apex court directed the tax department to return a sum of Rs 2,500 crore deposited by Vodafone in compliance of its interim order within two months.

Vodafone had challenged the September 8, 2010 judgement of the Bombay High Court in the apex court. The Bombay High Court judgement had held that Indian IT department had jurisdiction over the deal. (ANI)