Kingfisher Airlines misses deadline, more accounts frozen
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More trouble brewing for the cash-strapped airline Kingfisher as the service tax department freezes some more bank accounts for missing the deadline to clear the pending dues.
According to sources, the airline promoted by liquor baron Vijay Mallya had been given time till Wednesday (Feb 29) to pay Rs 10 crore as tax arrears, but it failed to meet the deadline. Hence, the department resorted to attach all the bank accounts of the airline.
A senior official of the Central Board of Excise & Customs (CBEC) says, 'the airline has been paying its dues at the rate of Rs 1 crore for every working day. Until this week, they have paid their dues but did not stick to their deadline.'
It may be noted that CBEC had frozen all bank accounts of Kingfisher earlier this year for nonpayment of dues, but lifted it after the airline started clearing it. Last week, Kingfisher could not stick to the payment schedule, thus forcing the CBEC to freeze most of its accounts.
Kingfisher was allowed to operate some accounts on the promise that it would pay up by February 29. However, the airline's management is in talks with CBEC officials to resolve the issue.
The I-T department too has frozen the airline's bank accounts for non-payment of TDS (tax deducted at source) dues of over Rs 300 crore. Senior officials said the repayment schedule offered by the airline was not acceptable to the department.
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