With the continued discussion and new informations coming, the fate of the tax dispute around Vodafone Essar Gujarat’s demerger of telecom towers to a separate entity for infrastructure sharing with other service providers is bound to affect its partners Idea Cellular and Bharti Airtel too but not necessarily for all companies that transfer towers to a separate company, say experts. They will suffer some tax implications says the expert. The tax department has objected to Vodafone’s demerger of towers to Vodafone Essar Infrastructure contending it is the first step in an alleged tax avoidance arrangement prior to this entity’s amalgamation into Indus Towers, which also holds the towers of Bharti and Idea for common use. Tower sharing is encouraged by the government to keep costs low for making cellular telephony available in rural areas. Vodafone, Bharti and Idea own Indus in the ratio of 42:42:16.www.financialexpress.com/news/idea-airtel-linked-to-fate-of-vodafone-gujarat-dispute/1048233
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