According to sources, India filed an appeal against the Cairn Arbitration Award

Sources said on Wednesday that India was in the process of filing an appeal against an arbitration panel, which asked the British oil company Cairn Energy plc to return $ 1.2 billion.

If enforcement proceedings are initiated, India is confident to address them and will vigorously defend its interests, the sources said, adding that it is open to a constructive settlement of tax disputes within the existing legal framework.

India is in the process of filing an appeal in the Cairn Arbitration Award case, he said, it was well within India’s sovereign powers to redress the situation of double non-taxation and misuse of tax.

Cairn CEO Simon Thomson last month met then Finance Secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey to discuss the arbitration award.

Sources said that Cairn is yet to respond based on the discussions.

He said that Cairn created a tax degrading structure and did not pay taxes anywhere in the world.

An international tribunal ruled in December that India had violated its obligations under the UK-India Bilateral Investment Treaty in 2014, when the Income Tax Department slapped the 10,247-crore tax assessment, using the law, which It was given powers to apply retroactively.

Soon after taxing the alleged capital gains made by the company on restructuring India’s business prior to its listing in 2006-07, the tax department seized Cairn’s residual 10% stake in Cairn India.

Cairn said on Tuesday that he had identified Indian property abroad, which he could seize in New Delhi if he failed to pay.