Want to fly a luxurious Airbus-you can own Mallya’s

While State Bank of India (SBI) failed to auction ‘wilful defaulter’ Vijay Mallya’s Kingfisher House, few yards away from domestic airport in Mumbai’s posh Santacruz area due to lack of interest from aspiring buyers, Service Tax department, however, claims it has takes few steps aggressively to auction Mallya’s luxurious A319 aircraft to recover part of Rs 535 crore due. The luxurious Airbus which Mallya used to extensively fly for his business and personal trips may fetch around Rs 140 crore, once the auction takes place. The aircraft, interestingly, was seized by the Department almost three years back in 2013 when the government found in spite of charging its passengers the service tax component, Mallya’s Kingfisher Airlines never bothered to deposit the same with the Service Tax department thus defaulting in payments to the government and also depriving it from its dues. The luxurious aircraft does not only have hundreds of finest wine glasses on board but also several expensive paintings and costly toiletries. The aircraft is now all set to be auctioned off on ‘as it where it is’ basis. The Service Tax department has maintained Rs one crore as earnest money for the aspiring bidders. What is astonishing that why the government did not do the same earlier though it had legally took control of the aircraft during December in 2013—the allegations levelled by some that Mallya, the face of Kingfisher in India, enjoyed political patronage  always, once again is proved true. Only on March 24, the Department released an advertisement in newspapers saying the aircraft will now be auctioned off to recover its dues. This comes after Bombay High Court cleared the petition earlier filed by the Department which acts under the umbrella of Ministry of Finance.

Meanwhile, in yet another development, Mallya has been issued fresh summons by the Enforcement Directorate on April 2 as he denied to appear before the probe agency last week. His earlier proposal made through a video message to the banks also has not yet found a taker. Mallya offered Rs 4000 crore of repayment towards one-time settlement to 17 banks by this September even as banks have to recover over Rs 9000 crore from him. The poster-boy of NPA mess of Indian banks is believed to be living somewhere in the United Kingdom.