Calcutta, July 31: Tata Motors has started counting the losses of its Singur project even as the automaker slugs it out in the Supreme Court with the Bengal government to assert its rights over the 996-acre tract of land it took on lease in 2006.

Tata Motors has written off a sum of Rs 309.88 crore in its accounts for 2015-16, the details of which were published this month. The automaker had made a provision for this sum in its accounts in the previous year (2014-15) to cover the "capital cost of buildings at the Singur plant".

Companies generally make provisions when they judiciously set aside an amount from their profits to cover a known liability even though the specific amount of the liability is not known or where the anticipated diminution of the value of an asset is uncertain. But a write-off usually means a company does not have too high an expectation of recovering the amount.

This is the first time Tata Motors is writing off the amount, although the Mamata Banerjee government had enacted a law in 2011 itself to take back the Singur land.

The dispute over the law, which was upheld by a single-judge bench and then overturned by a division bench, is pending in the Supreme Court which is close to pronouncing the verdict. The hearing is over and the apex court has reserved the verdict.

In reply to a questionnaire, the Tatas said the write-off was made from a prudent accounting practice standpoint, "keeping in view the time the Singur case was taking up for disposal".

The company continues to rigorously assert its rights, contentions and claims in the matter - something it has mentioned in a note to the financial statement for 2015-16.

The company has been advised that it has a good case and it can strongly defend the state government's appeal but some of the questions that arise are issues of constitutional law and, thus, the result of the appeal cannot be predicted, sources said.

The sum that has now been written off does not reflect the full value of the automaker's investments and, in any case, will not prejudice its suit for damages against the Bengal government. The write-off stood remarkably low compared with the loss that the Tatas have estimated in the past.

Although the company has never clearly spelt out a compensation amount, its petition to Calcutta High Court in 2011 put at Rs 1,400 crore the losses from the Singur project because of the forcible shift.

"The petitioners' losses are around Rs 1,400 crore which includes the investment on the ground which is sought to be taken over by the government and various costs and losses such as, value of land rights and goodwill, transportation, mothballing the entire plant which needed about more than 3,300 large trucks to carry the materials, the rehabilitation and resettlement of various, vendors, cost of retaining the land till date and the security thereof as compensation," Tata Motors in its petition to Calcutta High Court had said.

Some sources said the state government could contest the compensation claim on the basis of the Tata Motors write-off. However, corporate insiders said that the write-off would not prejudice any compensation claim of the company in the future.

In an email response to The Telegraph, Tata Motors said it did not foresee an additional write-off "at this stage".

"Keeping in view the time the Singur case was taking up for disposal in the Supreme Court, Tata Motors, from a prudent accounting practice standpoint, wrote off certain assets (Buildings) in the year 2014-15 after disclosing the same in the notes to accounts. There is no further write-off which we consider necessary at this stage. It was clarified in the notes that the company believed, as per legal advice, that it has a good case and it would continue to pursue the case and assert its rights and claims in the courts. We are not in a position to comment any further on the case, as the matter is sub judice," the company said.

In the Supreme Court, a two-member bench of Justices V. Gopala Gowda and Arun Misra had asked the Tata Motors' counsel whether the company wanted the land any longer. It had also observed that the court would first examine a batch of petitions filed by farmers challenging the Left government's forcible land acquisition.

Lawyers not connected with the case said if the apex court held that the acquisition by the then Left government was not in accordance with the law, Tata Motors would lose its rights to the land.

The state government agency, the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation, had acquired the land for a "public purpose" and then leased it out to Tata Motors and ancillary units in 2006.