Troubles mounted for beleaguered Kingfisher Airlines chief Vijay Mallya, as the Service Tax department moved the Bombay High Court to recover hefty dues running into crores of rupees from him and other directors, even as the debt-trapped airline employees staged protests in front of his Mumbai residence demanding unpaid salaries.
On a day when Attorney General(AG) Mukul Rohatgi disclosed to the Supreme Court that Mallya had left the country on March 2, the Service Tax department – in its petition seeking to recover the pending dues – urged the court to freeze Mallya’s passport and restrict his movement abroad.
After Service Tax Department’s lawyer Advait Sethna made a mention of the petition before Justice C V Bhadang, the judge said that he would hear the petition on March 11.
Among other things, the Service Tax department stated in its petition that the Mallya had collected huge sums of money from passengers travelling by Kingfisher Airline by way of Service tax but he and other board of directors of the airline had not deposited the money in government treasury. “As they are defaulters of statutory tax, money has to be recovered from them,” it said.
The department urged that the high court to direct Mallya to remain present before it until the plea was decided and also until the trial in a magistrate’s court for recovery of Service Tax was over.
According to the petition, the Service Tax department has filed two cases against Mallya in a magistrate court where the admitted liability of Kingfisher Airlines in respect of Service Tax dues was `32.68 crore and `23.38 crore respectively for different periods. While the first is being heard, the other one is still pending. The department told the court that the total disputed liability of Mallya in respect of Service Tax was to the tune of `535 crore, although admitted liability was `56.06 crore.
Meanwhile, the Kingfisher employees staged a protest outside his residence in Mumbai, demanding their unpaid salaries.
The protesters said that they had not been paid salaries July 2012. They said that the Kingfisher Airlines owed to the tune of `800 crore to its staff. The affected airline employees sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention to ensure the disbursal of the long pending dues by their employer.B