Tell us how much your Chennai plant is worth, SC orders Nokia

fe Bureau | New Delhi | Updated: Mar 14 2014, 04:36 IST

SummaryTHE Supreme Court on Thursday asked Nokia India to furnish the valuation report in relation to its Chennai plant by Friday

THE Supreme Court on Thursday asked Nokia India to furnish the valuation report in relation to its Chennai plant by Friday, the transfer of which is integral to the handset maker�s $7.2-billion deal with Microsoft announced in September 2013.

A bench headed by justice AR Dave came down heavily on Nokia India for not being forthcoming about the market value of the assets of its Chennai plant. On Wednesday, the income tax department had moved the apex court seeking a direction to stop the transfer of Nokia�s Chennai plant assets to Microsoft pending resolution of a tax dispute. The department argued that the company was being evasive about its valuation of the plant. The tax claims which relate to alleged violation of withholding tax norms by Nokia India since 2006 while making royalty payments to its Finnish parent, amounted to R21,000 crore for 2006-2013, including penalties.

The apex court said on Thursday: �It must be in the files of your company. Must be. Don�t take us for a ride. Give us the valuation report by tomorrow,� the court shot back when Nokia India counsel Vikas Srivastava said that no such valuation had been ascertained till now but quoted a rough estimation of R2,200 crore to R3,000 crore.

Observing that it would try to help both sides to find a reasonable solution to sort out the row, the court said closing down of Nokia India plant when its parent was globally transferring and disposing of its business might not be in the interests of the I-T department or the 8,000 employees at the plant. �By sending you (Nokia officials) to jail, the government will not get anything,� the judge said. Dave said if the deal doesn�t get through soon, the value of the company will decline sharply and tangible assets on same may not fetch much price. Around 50% of Nokia handsets are manufactured in India.

Srivastava argued that Nokia will receive around R30,000 crore from its global transfer of mobile phone business to Microsoft, �(which) is the best buyer and if anyone is willing to give a better price (Chennai plant), they are

More from Frontpage

Drug makers pump up injectables as US patent cliff loomsIndian and foreign generic drug makers seem to focus increasingly on the relatively fast-growing injectables segment to ramp up their revenues.

IRB is first to sign up for road premium recast, takes 2 projects to NHAI Sebi studying investors� plea against Maruti Suzuki move