Kingfisher Airlines has not only erred in paying its service tax and employees salaries, but has also failed in paying the requisite fees to the Airport Authority of India (AAI). Five of its cheques totaling `122.07 crore issued between August 25, 2011 and February 21, 2012 to the AAI were dishonoured due to insufficient funds.
A Right to Information (RTI) application filed by a Pune resident Sanjay Shirodkar with the AAI revealed that though these five cheques bounced, the AAI still did not initiate any action against the defaulter.
Out of the five cheques, four cheques were issued on the same day — August 25, 2011 — and they were deposited by AAI just before the cheques’ six-month validity was to expire, yet all of them bounced.
“Why did the AAI not cash the cheques for so many months? Had they deposited it in August itself, then it is possible that it would not have been dishonoured,” said Mr Shirodkar.
However, even in the instance wherein the AAI deposited one of cheques just a day after it was issued on February 17, 2012, the airline did not had enough funds to honour it.
“If a cheque of an ordinary person bounces, he or she is punished, but in this case, why was no action was taken against the airline?” questioned Mr Shirodkar.
It is not only Kingfisher whose cheques were rejected by the bank, but even cheques of other airlines worth lakhs have bounced. Some of these include the Qatar Airways, Go Air, Indigo, JetLite, Spicejet, Emirates, Jet Airways, etc. Ironically, there are several cases wherein cheques even for paltry sums like `520 have bounced.
Prakash Mirpuri, spokesperson and vice president, corporate communications of Kingfisher Airlines refused to clarify on the issue stating, “We do not discuss supplier and partner relationships publicly.”
Meanwhile G. S. Bawa, general manager, public relations, AAI, also did not respond to calls and text messages for an explanation on the subject.
BOX:
Cheque. No Bank Amount (in Crores)
592937 ICICI Bank, Mumbai 29.15
592939 ICICI Bank, Mumbai 27.92
563639 Axis Bank, Mumbai 25
563640 Axis Bank, Mumbai 25
563496 Axis Bank, Mumbai 15