Service Tax Dept may go for reauction of Mallya’s jet

TIL Desk/Business/Mumbai-The Service Tax Department may go for another round of bidding for luxury jet of embattled businessman Vijay Mallya as the highest bid received during the auction here was a measly Rs 27 crore against the reserve price of Rs 152 crore. “The department may go for fresh round of bidding for the jet through its official auctioneer MSTC after rejecting this offer,” a department official told.

Yesterday, the highest bid amount (of Rs 27 crore) was offered by a domestic firm SGI Commex. The only other bidder which participated in the auction was a UAE-based aviation support firm Alna Aero Distributional Finance Holdings, which last time had made an offer of Rs 1.09 crore for the jet.

The previous auction, which was conducted by the department on June 30, had proved to be a damp squib as the UAE-based lone bidder had made a paltry offer of less than a percent of the reserve price. The plane was attached by the Service Tax Department in December 2013, claiming tax dues of over Rs 800 crore from Mallya’s now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines.