Gujarat High Court has directed the state government to expedite the recovery of sales tax deferral liability from Essar Oil Ltd. A division bench of Justice P B Majmudar and Justice Mohinder Pal of Gujarat High Court has rejected Essar Oil's petition seeking relief in payment of 6,414 crore rupees sales tax liabilities by way of annual installments and exemption in payment of interest and penalty amount.

According to the state government, the penalty amount alone stands at nearly 2,000 crore rupees. In an Order issued on Monday, High Court asked the government to extract the huge amount from the company as per the Supreme Court's directions.

AIR Ahmedabad Correspondent reports that after the apex court rejected the company's review petition, Essar Oil approached the state government with a request to permit tax payment in eight annual installments from April 2013. As the government did not respond, the company moved High Court last month seeking direction to the government to decide on its request.