Essar Oil Limited : Supreme Court Decides on Essar Oil Gujarat Sales Tax Matter

Mumbai, September 13, 2012:

1. Honourable Supreme Court today passed a judgement in the Gujarat Sales Tax case, directing Essar Oil to pay the balance sales tax dues in instalments spread over two years. The balance dues of Rs 5,165 crore is now payable in eight quarterly instalments beginning Jan 2nd, 2013. 
2. The demand of Gujarat State for around Rs 1,800 crore as interest for the period upto Jan 17th, 2012, has been dismissed by the Honourable Supreme Court. 
3. On interest for the period beyond Jan 17th 2012, the Court directed the payment at the rate of only 10% p.a. against 18% p.a. demanded by the Gujarat State. 
4. With this, the whole matter of Gujarat Sales Tax payment by Essar Oil has come to conclusion.

Note to the editors:

1. On January 17th, 2012, Supreme Court set aside the judgment of the Gujarat High Court by which Essar Oil was entitled to avail of Sales Tax Deferment Scheme, i.e., to pay Sales Tax to the State government in deferred instalments. The company has availed of Rs 6,169  crore of Sales Tax benefit which was to be paid in deferred instalments. Of this amount, Essar Oil has already paid Rs 1,004 crore to the Gujarat government. 
2. Essar Oil has secured a line of credit worth Rs 5,000 crore with domestic lenders to meet any short term requirements towards meeting the sales tax liability. 

About Essar Oil
Essar Oil is a fully integrated oil & gas company of international scale with strong presence across the hydrocarbon value chain from exploration & production to refining and oil retail. It has a global portfolio of onshore and offshore oil & gas blocks, with about 2.1 billion barrels of oil equivalent in reserves & resources. Essar Oil now has 405,000 bpsd (barrels per stream-day) of crude refining capacity. There are more than 1,600 Essar-branded oil retail outlets in various parts of India.

About Essar Group
The Essar Group is a multinational conglomerate and a leading player in the sectors of Steel, Energy, Infrastructure and Services. With operations in more than 25 countries across five continents, the Group employs 75,000 people, with revenues of over US$ 27 billion.

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