But with the Supreme Court now allowing it to initiate a second arbitration process under the India- United Kingdom Bilateral Investment Protection Agreement (BIPA) pact, things may be finally moving towards resolution.

In a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange, CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd said its unit, Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd (HTIL) has been served with a tax demand of about Rs 7,900 crore, Rs 16,430 crore of interest and another Rs 7,900 crore in penalty.

Vodafone, Cairn Energy and other firms facing retrospective tax demand will have to withdraw legal cases and give up the right to contest constitutional validity of back-dated amendment to I-T laws if they want to avail of the dispute resolution scheme ending on December 31.

Raising the multi-billion dollar Vodafone tax issue, the UK on Monday asked for speeding up the arbitration process to resolve the dispute even as India assured that it will not resort to retrospective taxation route in such cases.

The government using retrospective tax legislation had in January 2014 issued a tax notice on Cairn Energy for alleged capital gains it made on a 10-year old internal reorganisation of its India unit.

Anil Agarwal's Vedanta Group had in 2011 acquired Cairn India from its British promoters, Cairn Energy Plc, and last year proposed to merge the cash-rich firm with BSE-listed Vedanta Ltd.

The revenue department in a notice sent to Vodafone on 4 February asked the company to pay the amount due or the department might seize its assets.

The revised model text for bilateral investment treaties has addressed many concerns, but to avoid litigations, India should renegotiate existing treaties on the basis of the new norms.

Vodafone chief's meeting assumes significance as the Finance Ministry is yet to take a call on filing an appeal in the transfer pricing case in the Supreme Court.

India has so far signed 83 Bilateral Trade and Promotion Agreements, of which 72 are in force.

The Supreme Court had ruled in Vodafone's favour in 2012, saying the company was not liable to pay any tax. But, the government amended the tax laws with retrospective effect.

The Government had in June 2014 appointed former Chief Justice of India R C Lahoti as arbitrator in the tax dispute case. However, in May 2015 Lahoti recused himself from the arbitration process.

On Wednesday, the government had decided not to appeal against  Bombay High Court decision which favoured Vodafone in the Rs 3,200 crore tax case.

\"Like all good things, this (Insurance Amendment Bill) will come to an end. I am hoping for a positive select Committee report. And I do hope to pass it this month,\" Jaitley said.

Vodafone had appealed against the country's tax office's decision to add about Rs 3200 crore ($523 million) to its taxable income for the financial year 2009/10.

Events that made news last fortnight. Featuring: Health Minister Harsh Vardhan's comment on morals and AIDS; Google Android One and more.

Former additional solicitor general Bishwajit Bhattacharyya filed a PIL in the SC on Thursday seeking its direction to the Centre to recover around Rs 20,000-crore tax dues from UK telecom major Vodafone Group and restrain the government from going ahead with arbitration on the issue.

Former Additional Solicitor General Bishwajit Bhattacharyya, who deals with tax matters and was a law officer during the UPA regime, mentioned his petition before a vacation bench headed by Justice Vikramajit Sen which posted the case for hearing on July one.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has recused himself from matters pertaining to the Rs 20,000 crore Vodafone tax dispute and delegated decision making in this regard to his junior Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

Canada hopes the Narendra Modi government will take decisions on two vital agreements the Manmohan Singh government could not. The first, a comprehensive economic partnership agreement and the second on Bilateral Investment treaties.