Kingfisher Airlines, the
cash-strapped airline of billionaire Vijay Mallya, has been asked to pay Rs 60 crore
which it owes as service tax.
According to S.K. Goel, chairman, Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC), the airline has been asked to pay the amount and no concessions will be provided to the carrier.
"There is
no question of leeway to Kingfisher on payment of service tax," Goel told reporters.
Earlier, the service tax department - for the fourth time in four months - had frozen 40 bank accounts belonging to the airlines as it had failed to meet the February 29 deadline for clearing its dues of Rs 40 crore to the department.
Kingfisher Airlines Chairman Vijay Mallya on April 2
wrote to the airline's staff informing them that the company would be able to pay their overdue salaries as its bank accounts have been un-frozen following payments worth Rs 44 crore to the income tax department and Rs 20 crore as service tax.
"All junior
staff will be paid before Easter, April 4. All pilots and engineers will be paid April 9 and 10," he wrote. "My focus now is to start paying your seriously overdue salaries."
The freeze on the airlines' accounts had
also led to its suspension from the International Air Transport Association's (IATA) inter-airline transaction body ICH (IATA Clearing House) and BSP (Billing and Settlement Plan) accounts on March 9 - on account of non-payment of dues.
The airline, which later on curtailed its international flight plans, blamed the seizure of its bank accounts in February by the Income Tax (IT) department as the main hurdle in clearing of dues.
On March 27, the airline had also
suspended operations to several cities and asked its staff to stay home till it managed fresh funding.
Kingfisher's woes were exacerbated on February 18 when its employees in Kolkata went on a flash strike as they had not received their salaries for several months.
Kingfisher has a debt of Rs 7,057.08 crore. Its net loss widened to Rs 444.27 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2011, from Rs 253.69 crore in the October-December quarter in the last fiscal.
The airline claimed that it had started the summer schedule with about 120 daily flights and 20 dedicated aircraft.
With IANS inputs
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