Many tax disputes have wrecked the Indian smartphone industry in the recent years. After the Vodafone dispute sometime back, Nokia India has been embroiled in a tax evasion dispute since long. Nokia paid Rs. 22,500 crores as requested by the Delhi High Court recently, for the release of its factory land. But the court imposed extra conditions on the return of this land against which Nokia appealed to the apex court last month. The company is expected to plead its case before the court today.
The factory in dispute is expected to become Microsoft’s property as soon as the Microsoft-Nokia deal is completed by the end of this month. The failure to reach a deal could potentially delay the completion of Microsoft’s takeover of the Nokia devices and services division.
As far as Indian courts go, we do not expect the verdict to come any time soon, but it seems that Nokia is making every effort to get back the control of its factory as soon as possible.
