Japanese automaker Nissan Motor has sued the Indian government for $770 million (Rs 4,968 crore) in a dispute over incentives due from the Tamil Nadu government, Reuters reported on Friday, citing documents it had accessed.
The first arbitration hearing in the matter will be held in mid-December, Nissan Motor had said in an ultimatum it gave India in August, after over a year of several meetings with officials of Central and Tamil Nadu governments. The payment from Tamil Nadu was due in 2015, as part of a 2008 agreement to set up a car manufacturing unit there.
The meetings came after Nissan sent a legal notice to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in July 2016, seeking the payment of the incentives. The notice said that requests to Tamil Nadu officials for the payment had been overlooked, and that a plea by Nissan’s chairperson Carlos Ghosn to Modi in March 2016 was also ignored.
During the meetings, Union government officials from several ministries assured the company that it would receive the payment due and asked it not to bring a legal case, Reuters said quoting an unidentified source. However, in August, Nissan asked India to appoint an arbitrator.
An unidentified Nissan spokesperson told Reuters that the company was “committed to working with the government of India toward a resolution.”
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