<div>Anglo-Dutch oil major Royal Dutch Shell Plc said Monday, 4 February, 2013 that its Indian unit will challenge a transfer pricing order by Indian tax authorities relating to a transfer of shares to its parent and is evaluating all options for redressal.<br /><br />The company said a Rs 15,220 crore adjustment has been proposed in the transfer pricing order by the tax authorities on account of issue of equity shares by Shell India to its sole parent Shell Gas BV in March 2009.<br /><br />Shell said 87 million shares had been issued at Rs 10 each, but the order by the tax authorities had valued these at Rs 183 per share.<br /><br />"Taxing the money received by Shell India is in effect a tax on foreign direct investment (FDI), which is contrary not only to law but also to the spirit of the recent global trip by the Finance Minister," Shell's India Chairman Yasmine Hilton said in a statement.<br /><br />Shell has been the latest global company to have a run-in with tax officials in the country.<br /><br />"Shell India tax experts have indeed been in discussions with the Indian tax authorities on this issue over the past week and do not agree with their views," a Shell spokesman said in a statement emailed in reply to a query from Reuters on the basis of a report in Mint newspaper.<br /><br />"The tax officer has now made an assessment and passed an order which we have not yet received. We will review the order and initiate consequent appropriate actions," the spokesman said in an email late on Saturday to Reuters.<br /><br />The Shell India case comes amid uncertainty about the outcome of a more-than $2 billion tax dispute between Vodafone Group Plc and the tax office that has dented corporate investor confidence in the country.<br /><br />Vodafone, the largest corporate investor in India, has repeatedly clashed with authorities over taxes since it bought Hutchison Whampoa's local mobile business in 2007. While the Supreme Court backed Vodafone's position that it does not owe tax on the deal, a subsequent law change enabled India to impose tax on mergers retrospectively.<br /><br />Indian officials and Vodafone have held recent talks on the dispute.<br /><br />(Reuters)</div>
