Mallya luxury jet sold for paltry Rs 35 cr

Mumbai, July 1

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After at least four aborted attempts since March 2016, the service tax authorities managed to get a buyer for the confiscated luxury jet of runway businessman Vijay Mallya, with Florida-based Aviation Management Sales emerging as the highest bidder for Rs 34.8 crore ($5.05 million) last Friday.

The service tax authorities had put the luxury A319 jet, in which Mallya used to crisscross the world to solicit business deals, under the hammer to recover their dues to the tune of Rs 800 crore accumulated on account of non-payment of service tax before his erstwhile Kingfisher Airlines went belly up in October 2012.

The transaction was completed last Friday through an e-auction, following a Karnataka High Court order, sources said, adding that the jet has been parked at a hangar of the Mumbai airport since its confiscation in 2013. The deal will go through after Bombay High Court’s approval. The department had initially fixed Rs 152 crore as the reserve price at the first auction attempt in March 2016. A lone bidder turned up and quoted a meagre Rs 1.09 crore. The department rejected the bid and then lowered the reserve price by 10 per cent. The plane was attached by the Service Tax Department in December 2013. It was forced to sell the aircraft after Mumbai airport operator MIAL moved the Bombay High Court seeking a direction to the department citing heavy losses on account of the non-productive use of its space.

The last bidding was conducted by MSTC in March 2017. This January, the Bombay High Court directed the official liquidator of the Karnataka High Court, who has been in charge of the assets and books of Kingfisher Airlines, to take steps to take away the plane as it is been occupying space at the highly congested Mumbai airport all this while. — PTI