NEW DELHI: The government has pressed the accelerator on reforms, fasttracking a faltering disinvestment programme, fixing a base price for auction of 3G spectrum and deciding not to appeal a decision by the Bombay High Court, which had quashed a transfer pricing-related tax demand on Vodafone , keeping its vow of a nonadversarial tax regime.The Centre on Wednesday notified stock exchanges that it would sell up to 10% in Coal India on Friday, a transaction that could fetch as much as Rs 24,000 crore, more than half the selloff target of Rs 43,425 crore for FY15. It has raised only Rs 1,700 crore till now. While the decision on CIL stake sale was cleared by a high-powered ministerial panel headed by FM Arun Jaitley , all other decisions were taken by the Cabinet, which met on Wednesday afternoon.Further, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved HDFC Bank’s plan to raise Rs 10,000 crore through a rights issue. CCEA also approved Lupin’s proposal to raise the FII limit in the company to 49% from 33%, which could fetch foreign investment of Rs 6,099 crore, the government said in a statement.Both proposals had already been approved by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB).The Cabinet is likely to be busy on Thursday as well since CCEA will decide the price band for the offer for sale (OFS) of Coal India. The price band will be announced on Thursday evening and retail investors will, as is the usual practice, benefit from a 5% discount. Coal India’s share closed 0.27% up at Rs 384.05 on BSE on Wednesday.ET had reported on January 12 that a 10% stake sale in Coal India was imminent after the government managed to convince unions which had gone on strike protesting the selloff as well as a provision in the recently promulgated ordinance that could allow private companies to mine and sell coal. "The final price would be anywhere between Rs 365 and Rs 375 per share," a person privy to the deliberations told ET. The government is likely to sell 5-10% stakes in Power Finance Corporation and Rural Electrification Corporation once the Coal India OFS is complete.The Cabinet decided not to appeal the Bombay High Court decision that had quashed a Rs 1,397-crore transfer pricing claim on Vodafone. The court had struck down the demand in an order in October.In a statement, the government said it decided not to appeal the case in the Supreme Court based on the opinions of the chief commissioner of income-tax (international taxation), CBDT chairperson and the attorney-general. "This is a major correction of a tax matter which has adversely affected investor sentiment," the statement said. The decision could benefit IBM, Nokia, Cairn India, Leighton India and many others that have faced similar tax demands.The Cabinet said the government will accept orders at different fora in similar cases that have been decided in favour of the taxpayer."The government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi , wants to convey a clear message to investors (the) world over that this is a government where the decisions will be fair, transparent and within the four corners of the law," Telecommunications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told newspersons after the Cabinet meeting. The tax demand on Vodafone and other MNCs had caused consternation as the tax authorities had sought to tax equity inflows from the parent company to their Indian affiliates using transfer pricing rules, something which many tax experts say is unprecedented.The Union Cabinet also decided to adopt the Telecom Commission’s recommendations setting the base price for 3G spectrum auction at Rs 3,705 crore, significantly higher than that suggested by the telecom regulator.At this price, the government is guaranteed to get at least Rs 17,555 crore, a third of which will accrue to the exchequer in the current fiscal providing support to the finance minister , who is struggling to meet the fiscal deficit target for the year."The estimated revenues from the auction of 2100 Mhz band are Rs 17,555 crore of which Rs 5,793 crore is expected to be realised in the current financial year," the government said in a statement. The industry expressed unhappiness with the higher base price.