Chennai, Sep (EPC News): MTS, owned by Sistema Shyam TeleServices, today introduced three new smartphones, developed by handset manufacturers Fly, ZTE and Micromax, at its retail stores across the country.

The new CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) smart phones targeted at young, net-savvy professionals, support high quality voice and net-enabled data services, the Chief Strategy Officer, Cheenu Seshadri, said after formally unveiling the phones.

As part of its introductory offer, the company will give buyers 20GB of free data usage for the first two months with all the phones.

The entry level smartphone, ‘Buzz’, is priced at Rs4,999, while the ‘Alive’ model has a price tag of Rs5,999. The ‘Ivory’ model is priced at Rs12,999, he said.

EPC News Bureau

Mumbai, Sep, (EPC News): The Bombay High Court on Wednesday rejected the petition filled by the UK telecom giant Vodafone International challenging the I-T Department’s Rs12,000 crore claim to impose a capital gains tax.

The IT Department had demanded tax and penalty from Vodafone when it acquired Hong-Kong based Hutchison Telecom International’s (HTIL) 67% stake in Hutchison-Essar (now Vodafone Essar) for $11.2 billion in 2007.

Vodafone’s argument that the deal was outside the purview of India tax laws as the transaction took place overseas between British-born Vodafone and the Hutchison group of Hong Kong-based multibillionaire Li Ka-shing was rejected by the High Court.

The court withheld that the deal should be subject to Indian capital gains tax because the operating assets of HEL were in India. However, it gave Vodafone the liberty to argue before the tax department that no penalty should be imposed.