Kathmandu, May 7

The Supreme Court today continued its previous order on Ncell’s tax issues, which had stayed the Large Taxpayers Office’s decision to levy Rs 39.06 billion capital gains tax from the telecom company.

A bench of justices Sapana Pradhan Malla and Prakash Kumar Dhungana gave continuity to the apex court’s previous stay order issued on April 25.

Issuing a show cause notice to defendants, a single bench of Justice Bam Kumar Shrestha, on April 25, had barred LTO from collecting CGT from Ncell till the next hearing of the court on the issue. The SC had passed the order in response to a case filed by Ncell on April 22, in which the private sector telecommunication service provider had argued that it owed LTO only Rs 14.5 billion, not Rs 39.06 billion as claimed by the government authority.

The apex court today said a final hearing on the case would take place on June 4.

Earlier, the LTO had decided to collect Rs 39.06 billion additional CGT from Ncell on the company’s buyout deal between Telia- Sonera and Axiata. The LTO had set a deadline of seven days for Ncell to deposit the aforementioned amount.

However, Ncell filed a writ petition in the SC on the last day of the said deadline, claiming that it needed to pay CGT worth only Rs 14.5 billion to the LTO.

This resulted in a stay order from the SC on the LTO’s decision as the apex court had observed that LTO’s decision to impose the aforementioned tax on Ncell was wrong, since the LTO had calculated the whole due amount without deducting the advance CGT that Ncell had paid.

The court had stated that interest and fee should be imposed on the remaining CGT amount.

Meanwhile, Ncell has also requested for arbitration at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes.