EU court rejects telecoms firms' VAT claim

Luxembourg, June 26: Mobile phone operators will not be able to claim billions of euros in what they say was paid as value-added tax when they bought 3G licences from the British government, the European Union's top court ruled on Tuesday.

Vodafone, O2, T-Mobile, Orange and Hutchison had said the VAT sales tax was levied by Britain, but UK tax authorities argued there was no VAT component in the fees for the licences sold in 2000.

The operators were trying to reclaim 3.3 billion pounds (.60 billion) from a total bill of 22.5 billion pounds.

The court also ruled against T-Mobile Austria in a similar case in that country.

Reuters>