Rishi Sunak drawn into in-law Narayana Murthy Amazon tax dispute

London: Cloudtail India Pvt Ltd - the online retailing joint venture of Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy's firm and Amazon.com - faced a 5.5 million pounds demand, including interest and penalties, from tax authorities after it paid "meagre" taxes over the past four years, a media report said on Monday. Amazon reportedly developed independent sellers such as Cloudtail, as 'special merchant' which enjoyed over 35 per cent of total sales on the platform until 2019.

While Murthy's Catamaran Ventures indirectly holds 76 per cent in Cloudtail and Amazon the remaining 24 per cent, the firm's two top posts - chief executive and finance director - were with the US retailer. Cloudtail's holding company, Prione is also run by a former Amazon manager, the report in 'The Guardian' newspaper said.

It said that it is not known precisely what the tax dispute is about and the company said that it was contesting the bill, adding that since the "matter is sub judice, we are unable to comment any further .

Following the report, the office of UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak, who is son-in-law of Murthy, was forced to comment. The revelations come just days after Sunak led the G7 finance ministers' charge to agree to a global deal designed to make tech companies pay more tax.