Kingfisher to pay Rs10 crore service tax this fiscal

Cash-strapped Kingfisher Airlines, has massively cut down operations including winding up its international services totally, and has agreed to pay only up to Rs10 crore of its Rs76-crore service tax dues this fiscal, according to a top government official.

The debt-stricken airline, which had been issued several warnings by the regulator DGCA and aviation ministry not coming up with a workable flight schedule and revival plan, owed Rs76 crore in service tax arrears which it had already collected from passengers.

According to Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) chairman S K Goel, Kingfisher had dues to the tune of Rs76 crore and the board was talking to them. He added, they would be depositing about Rs10 crore this month.

He added Kingfisher had told the board it was going through a cash-crunch and needed some more time to pay up.

According to Goel, as per their talks, the Vijay Mallya-promoted airline would pay only Rs5 to 10 crore of its dues before the end of the fiscal but the private carrier need not worry about any immediate penal action.

He said the service tax department had been freezing Kingfisher's bank accounts since October due to the non- payment, and as of the moment it had frozen as many as 40 accounts.