Vodafone
taxation dispute in India has witnessed many ups
and
downs. Finally, it has reached at a stage where the Parliament of
India has to intervene to conclusively settle the same.
Once bitten twice shy. This adage aptly
applies to
Indian government. Handed with a defeat at the Supreme Court level,
now Indian government is planning to bring amendments in the tax law
of India.
Simultaneously, Indian government has
also
introduced consolidated
FDI policy of India 2012. The new FDI policy is
clearly
safeguarding Indian interests unlike the previous one that was
specifically crafted to sub serve private interests.
The current budget session (April-May
2012) is going
on and the proposed amendments may be placed in the first week of May
2012. Let us see how Vodafone and other telecom sector players would
respond to these developments.
In the meantime censorship
of controversial news by Google is in full
force. Vodafone
taxation related news is frequented censored in India these days. For
instance, this
post did not appear at all in the news while this
post appeared and then disappeared within half
an hour of
its posting.
It is only after
making the issue public that the latter post
resurfaced.
But this has become a standard
practice of Google and Indian government for
which neither
is providing any explanation.
It seems either Google or Indian
government is
openly and blatantly abusing the controversial Information
Technology (Intermediaries Guidelines) Rules 2011 of India.
In fact, a motion
for annulment of intermediary guidelines has already been moved In
the Rajya Sabha.
It is high time for both Google and
Indian
government to clarify their respective stands in this regard as civil
liberties of Indians in cyberspace is clearly
violated
through these censorship activities.
