Good news for Anil Ambani as NCLAT dismisses tax claim against Reliance Communication filed after…

A two-member bench of the NCLAT upheld the previous ruling by the Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), which had dismissed the state tax department’s second claim of Rs 6.10 crore.

The appeal lodged by the state tax department to recoup arrears from Reliance Communications has been overruled by the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT). The ruling was given on the grounds that the department’s assessment came too late, only commencing after the beleaguered telecom giant had already launched its financial insolvency proceedings.

A two-member NCLAT bench has supported the prior verdict from the NCLT’s Mumbai division. They dismissed the tax authority’s demand once again for a colossal Rs 6.10 crore, PTI reported.

CIRP Against Reliance Communication

Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) against Reliance Communication was initiated on June 22, 2019.

The state tax department had filed two claims. The first claim was filed on July 24, 2019, for Rs 94.97 lakh while a second demand was sent on November 15, 2021, for Rs 6.10 crore, which arose out of an assessment order dated August 30, 2021.

NCLT Rejected Second Claim

NCLT had admitted the first claim, which was passed before the initiation of CIRP. However, it rejected the second claim, which was based on an assessment order passed in 2021. The Committee of Creditors (CoC) of RCom approved the CIRP on March 2, 2020, and the subsequent claim was filed by the state tax department on November 15, 2021.

The said order was challenged by the state tax department before the NCLAT contending that NCLT ought to have accepted the entire claim.
However, it was also rejected by NCLAT observing that the subsequent claim was filed after the approval of the plan of CoC. It upheld the view taken by NCLT that delay in filing the second claim cannot be condoned, the report added.

Approval Of Sale Of Rcom Assets

In December last year, NCLT Mumbai approved the sale of some of the real estate assets of telecom company Reliance Communications.
The items marked for sale include the Chennai Haddow Office belonging to RCom, encompassing both the building and the surrounding land, a significant chunk of land in Ambattur, Chennai that spans around 3.44 acres, a fairly big plot of 871.1 square meters in Pune, an office space situated in Bhubaneswar, and stakes in shares of Campion Properties and Reliance Realty.