Kingfisher Mallya bid to break logjam

New Delhi: Kingfisher Airlines promoter Vijay Mallya today called on Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) chairman S.K. Goel and sought to defreeze the carrier’s bank accounts, a senior finance ministry official said today.

Last week, the CBEC had frozen 10 accounts of Kingfisher for an alleged default in service tax collected from passengers. Goel had said Kingfisher owed Rs 110 crore towards service tax for the April-November period.

Mallya has promised to clear the November service tax dues within a day, the finance ministry official said.

The November service tax dues are estimated at Rs 10-15 crore.

Mallya refused to speak to reporters after meeting Goel at North Block. Sources said Mallya also assured the tax authority that the remaining dues would be cleared by March.

Kingfisher’s accounts have been frozen twice recently by the service tax department. Its accounts were first frozen for two days in the first week of November.

The department withdrew its order only after getting an assurance from the airline officials that they would deposit the dues in three installments.

The debt-laden airline has a total outstanding loan liability of Rs 6,419.60 crore, which includes Rs 9,730.37 crore provided to Kingfisher for non-fund based activities.

Last week, minister of state for finance Namo Narain Meena had said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha that banks had no plans to carry out a second round of debt restructuring of the airline’s liabilities.

Meanwhile, national carrier Air India today paid Rs 8 crore towards service tax for the month of November, sources said.

The tax authorities froze as many as 11 Air India bank accounts for non-payment of service tax.