IT department says Kingfisher House under attachment

December 14, 2013 02:28 pm | Updated November 16, 2021 09:23 pm IST - Bangalore

Asserting its primary claim, the Income Tax Department has maintained that dues to it will have to be settled first by Kingfisher Airlines, in the wake of a lender consortium of banks laying claim to Kingfisher House in Mumbai to recover part of their loans.

Kingfisher Airlines Limited (KAL) had deducted tax at source from employee’s salary and other payments for many years but failed to remit it to the government account following which it owes over Rs. 350 crore as taxes, the department said.

The IT Department had attached all assets of KAL and is in the process of recovering its dues by sale and attachment of assets and properties of the defaulter company, it said.

Kingfisher House, located near the domestic terminal of the Mumbai Airport, is under attachment under the second schedule of the IT Act, 1961, the department said in a statement.

The IT department’s claim that the amount due to the government will have “priority” over other debts comes two days after the Karnataka High Court rejected KAL’s plea challenging the move by a consortium of banks to take possession of its prime Kingfisher House property to realise part of the debts due to them from the airlines.

The IT Department said it is a settled proposition of law that the amount due to the government under any statue and, in this case, under the provisions of IT Act, 1961, will have priority over other debts.

As such, it said, the dues of IT Department will have to be settled first before the lender consortium of banks can stake any claim to the property.

It cautioned that any person transacting in the Kingfisher House property will be held in violation of second schedule of IT Act, 1961 and will be liable for all the consequences.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.