The service tax department is in the process of auctioning industrialist Vijay Mallya’s luxury jet Airbus 319, in Mumbai, in a bid to recover as much as they can of the INR 800 crore service tax due from the now defunct Kingfisher Airlines. The service tax authority had seized at least eight aircrafts owned by Kingfisher Airlines and Mallya. The aircraft up for auction is owned by C.J.Leasing (Cayman) Ltd and was given on lease to Kingfisher.
As of now there are four foreign companies one of them being an UAE based company that have registered for the bid process. Another UK based company is also partially qualified but the money deposited is still to be credited. The list of final bidders will be finalized only after the firms pay the earnest money deposit on June 30th.
The service tax department hopes to raise INR 150-200 crores from the auction. The reserve price is not disclosed by th ethe department as it was decided by a special committee dealing with the auction process.
Mallya, presently in exile in the UK owes INR 6,963 crores to a consortium of bankers led by State Bank of India, for loans taken to run Kingfisher Airlines. The banks say Mallya had provided personal guarantees apart from pledging his stake in UB Group companies to raise funds for the airline.
[ Via : Business-Standard ]
