The final appeal is pending with ITAT(Income Tax Appellate Tribunal) which has been postponed thrice already. It is now slated for tomorrow. Interestingly earlier postponements were sought by the counsel representing Income Tax department and not by NDTV. 

The case at ITAT is final appeal by NDTV against a tax demand of Rs 450 crores which was originally raised a year and half back during the UPA regime.
NDTV appealed against it twice and lost the case. If it loses this appeal it will have to move the high court.

It is now looking at a tax liability of Rs. 450 crores plus minimum of 100 %  fine which means Rs 950 cr. NDTV has recently been held guilty of withholding information relating to its tax related  liabilities from its investors in violation of SEBI rules and SEBI had fined it Rs 2 Crores . In  that SEBI order,  it declares   net worth of NDTV  at Rs 365 crores. The tax deamnd in dispute is higher than reported revenue earnings of the group (as on March 2014)  as well as its net worth.

That is indeed a very difficult situation NDTV finds itself in.  Now this ITAT hearing is a curious case. Some  income tax officials we spoke with believed department has not shown the will to pursue the case vigorously. They also believed these  postponements may have  helped NDTV.  They pointed out that  while IT department is happy and quick to field somebody as senior as ASG (Additional Solicitor General)  to defend it in routine cases of  service disputes in CAT courts, it is fielding Girish Dave, we were told –  a retired  IRS officer who invited criticism  when  after retirement he  joined a law firm which had Vodafone as its client. Mr Dave was the one who was handling government’s case against Vodafone’s 11,000 thousand crores  tax liability. A case which Vodafone eventually won.

NDTV is represented by Senior Advocate S C Aggrawal at ITAT tomorrow.  Interestingly, Mr S K Srivastava, the IRS officer reportedly credited with unearthing the NDTV financial irregualrities has moved a petition with ITAT alleging that his own department is not pursuing the tax evasion case against NDTV  robustly.

While Girish Dave may have been a fine  officer, given the high profile nature and all around suspicions, why couldn’t have government  fielded a strong advocate of repute ? Well, that’s Rs 450 crore question – at the very least.