The Delhi High Court has agreed to an urgent hearing on the tax dispute between Nokia India and Income-Tax (I-T) department for May 26, 2015. This comes after Nokia informed the court that it has found a buyer for its mobile manufacturing plant, which has been closed due to the tax dispute.
The company has also stated that the valuation of the assets would be known as soon as the report of Ernst and Young India (EY) was received. EY was recently appointed by the court to estimate value for Nokia India's Chennai mobile plant and its other assets. Meanwhile, the Essar Group has confirmed that it is no longer pursuing the deal for buying Nokia’s Chennai facility.
Earlier in April 2015, Nokia had submitted the name of the prospective buyer and their offer before the court and the I-T department. Also, it had sought the court’s permission to sell the plant and keep the amount in escrow account till the matter is resolved. However, the I-T department stated that the amount offered by the buyer was very less and if the unit and related assets were sold, it would be difficult to recover the tax amount which has been placed at Rs 100 billion.