Ahmedabad: The Gujarat government on Monday froze three bank accounts of Essar Oil Ltd (EOL) in Jamnagar following Gujarat High Court directives to expedite recovery of over Rs 8,000 crore in sales tax dues. "Three bank accounts of EOL have been frozen in Jamnagar district as part of the due recovery process," a top finance department functionary said.
The division bench of Justice PB Majmudar and Justice Mohinder Pal last month had rejected the petition of EOL, which sought that company be allowed to pay the tax dues in installments and also grant it exemption from paying penalty and interest on it.
The court had directed Gujarat government on June 25 to expedite recovery process of the entire amount due. This followed Supreme Court in January stating that EOL was not entitled to defer payment of sales tax, an incentive offered by the Gujarat government for the company to start production at its Vadinar refinery in the state by August 15, 2003.
Since the deadline was missed, the company lost right to defer sales tax payment by 17 years....
more
09:41 PM, Jul 09, 2012
