FILE PHOTO: A bird flies by the Vedanta office building in Mumbai August 16, 2010. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui/File Photo
| Photo Credit: Reuters
March 12
Indian mining group Vedanta must pay $9.4 million) to Cairn UK Holdings for a delay in paying dividends, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) said on March 12.
The order, which is on SEBI’s website, said that Vedanta must make the payment within 45 days or face further action.
SEBI also barred Vedanta directors including vice-chairman Navin Agarwal from India’s securities markets for two months.
The regulator in its order said that Vedanta, formerly known as Cairn India, had violated Indian law by withholding dividends that should have been paid to the British company between January 2014 and June 2017.
Vedanta did not immediately respond to a Reuters emailed query for comment.
The Indian company had said it failed to pay dividends because of asset restrictions related to a demand by the Income Tax department. However, the restrictions expired in March 2016.
Cairn UK lodged a complaint with SEBI in 2017 that, despite reminders and the lifting of the restrictions, the dividends were not paid until June 2017 and that Vedanta was liable to pay interest on the delayed dividends.
SEBI said interest should be paid to “compensate for the time value of money that … (Cairn UK) was unlawfully deprived of”.