Service tax dept to auction Vijay Mallya's planes: CBEC

Total disputed liability of Mallya with respect to service tax to the tune of Rs 535 cr

The service tax department might soon auction aircraft owned by liquor baron Vijay Mallya to recover around Rs 535 crore in dues, Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) chairman Najib Shah said on Saturday.

“Some properties of Vijay Mallya have been attached. His aircraft are with us. So those are what we are going to auction very shortly,” Shah said at a press conference on the launch of a single-window Customs clearance platform.

In March, the service tax department had claimed in a petition to the Bombay high court that Mallya’s disputed service tax laibility was Rs 535 crore (Rs 5.35 billion). The petition said Kingfisher Airlines had collected service tax from customers but had not deposited it with the government.

Mallya, who has been declared a wilful defaulter and whose group companies owe over Rs 9,000 crore (Rs 90 billion) to 17 banks, left the country on March 4 and is now in the UK. At the press conference, Shah also spoke of the single-window Customs interface for facilitating trade launched on Friday. It aims at speedier clearance of inbound shipments and is part of the government’s initiative to make conduct of business easier.

The facility enables importers to file a common electronic integrated declaration on the ICEGATE portal. Earlier, importers or Customs brokers had to file nine forms required by six agencies for clearance of consignments from different government agencies.

Shah said the time and cost associated with import and export clearances was a matter of concern. “To reduce transaction costs and decrease cargo release time, a number of steps have been taken by the Central Board of Excise and Customs,” he added.

The facility was primarily for importers, Shah said, adding the department would create a similar platform for exporters.

He said the government’s indirect tax collection had exceeded the revised estimate of Rs 7.04 lakh crore for 2015-16. “We have already collected Rs 7.09 lakh crore. We have surpassed revised estimates for Customs, excise and service tax,” he said. Shah added measures like duties on petrol and diesel had helped improve tax revenue.

The CBEC chairman also said the draft model law on the goods and services tax is getting finalised and it will be put on public domain soon.

In the budget for 2016-17 Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had revised upwards the the excise duty collection target for 2015-16 by 23 per cent to Rs 2.84 lakh crore from the budget estimate of Rs 2.30 lakh crore.