by admin | May 25, 2021 | Economy, News
New Delhi/Mumbai : (IANS) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday issued summons for appearance to former liquor baron Vijay Mallya and questioned some former Kingfisher airlines executives while his “fleeing” from India triggered a spat in parliament. However, the flamboyant tycoon insisted that he had not fled the country.
The issue rocked the Rajya Sabha for the second consecutive day with the opposition and treasury benches exchanging heated arguments over the case.
The ED has summoned Mallya to appear before the agency next Friday (March 18) for questioning in the ongoing probe into a money-laundering case, officials said in Mumbai.
The development comes five days after the ED registered a case under Prevention of Money Laundering Act last Monday and a day after it summoned former top officials of the airlines and the IDBI to whom it owes around Rs.900 crore.
Earlier on Friday, the ED quizzed the airlines’ ex-chief financial officer A. Raghunathan to shed light on its various financial transactions and related matters.
Besides Raghunathan, the ED has also summoned former IDBI chairman-cum-managing director Yogesh Aggarwal and other senior executives of the airline and the bank for questioning on the advances made to KFA and other connected aspects.
However, it was not immediately clear when Mallya — who is currently abroad — will return to India and respond to the ED summons but he stressed he was not an absconder.
“I am an international businessman. I travel to and from India frequently. I did not flee from India and neither am I an absconder. Rubbish,” said Mallya, also a sitting Rajya Sabha member.
Rubbishing reports that he had fled to London, the United Breweries group chairman said that he had full faith in the Indian judicial system and “respects and will comply with the law of the land”.
Mallya also said that he does not want a trial by the media. “Once a media witch hunt starts, it escalates into a raging fire where truth and facts are burnt to ashes.
“News reports that I must declare my assets. Does that mean the banks did not know my assets or look at my parliamentary disclosures,” he asked in a series of tweets.
A consortium of 17 banks led by the State Bank of India wants Mallya arrested for not repaying about Rs.9,000 crore he had borrowed.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court gave Mallya two weeks to respond and fixed the next hearing on March 30.
Meanwhile, the Rajya Sabha witnessed a ruckus over the issue as Congress members accused the government of letting off Mallya.
“On 16 October 2015, the CBI informed the immigration authorities that should Mr. Mallya intend or try to leave this country he should be detained… Detention orders were issued by CBI… But exactly a month later, the CBI changed this order and told immigration they should be only informed,” Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said while raising the issue in the house.
“What happened in one month? The government is party to his fleeing from this country,” he claimed.
In its counter-attack, the government, however, told the Congress that they would not let off Mallya the way Bofors scam accused Ottavio Quattrocchi was let off.
“We want to make it clear about Mallya, the government has said the country’s money will be returned. We will not let him off the way you let off Quattrocchi,” retorted Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.
Outside, parliament, the Congress alleged that Mallya was tipped off to leave the country through a “secret understanding” between him and the government.
“Facts now suggest that Mallya was actually tipped off to leave the country in order to escape recovery of over Rs.9,000 crore of loan by a consortium of banks,” party leaders Randeep Singh Surjewala, Rajeev Gowda and Ranjit Ranjan said in a statement here.
“If government has a secret understanding or is handling the issue through back channels, it owes a duty to place the same in public domain,” they said.
Mallya left the country six days before a group of creditor-banks led by the State Bank of India on Tuesday moved the Supreme Court to restrain him from leaving India.
Meanwhile, the Bombay High Court on Friday adjourned to March 28 the Maharashtra service tax department’s plea for recovery of dues from Mallya.
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Large Enterprise
New Delhi : (IANS) Even as the government on Thursday assured that “every possible action will be taken” against beleaguered liquor baron Vijay Mallya, the Congress hit out at the Centre asking “how did it allow Mallya to leave the country”.
Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday questioned the government as to how it allowed liquor baron Vijay Mallya to leave the country.
“I asked a clear question to Jaitley-ji, How did Mallya-ji escape from India? Someone who has stolen Rs.9,000 crore from the government, how did you allow him to leave the country,” Gandhi asked.
The issue was also raised in the Rajya Sabha by Leader of Oposition Ghulam Nabi Azad of the Congress, who said Mallya should not have been allowed to leave as there were serious charges against him.
“He could have been identified even at the airport when he was leaving as he is a prominent figure and most people recognise him,” Azad said.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley invoked the case of Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi while countering Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi’s allegation that the government had failed to act against Mallya.
Quattrocchi was an Italian businessman who was sought until 2009 in India for criminal charges of acting as a conduit for bribes in the Bofors scandal.
Countering Rahul Gandhi’s allegation, Jaitley later told reporters: “Rahul Gandhi should understand that going away of Ottavio Quattrocchi and Vijay Mallya is not the same. When CBI had alerted government about Quattrocchi, it was a criminal case and the then government did not stop him.”
Jaitley also added that there is a legal procedure on impounding a passport and action could be taken only based on the provisions of the Passport Act.
During Zero Hour in the Lok Sabha, Jaitley said Mallya, as of the end of November 2015, owed about Rs.90 billion to various banks in the country.
He was responding to the issue raised by Congress floor leader Mallikarjun Kharge, who wanted to know why the government did not “confiscate” the passport of the chief of the now defunct Kingfisher Airlines.
The Congress leader wanted to know why the government and State Bank of India did not act against Mallya in time, which helped him to flee.
Jaitley said every member of the house shares the concern raised by Kharge, but said the sanction of money to Mallya was made during the UPA regime.
“The banks have started taking action against the companies to recover the debt. Certainly every possible action will be taken against all the defaulters,” Jaitley said in the Lok Sabha.
“Some cases were filed in different courts across the country and some counter-cases were also registered,” he added.
Jaitley also said that as of November 30, 2015, the total dues compounded with interest stands to the tune of over Rs.9,000 crore against Vijay Mallya’s companies.
“As far as accounts are concerned, first sanction was made by the consortium of banks in September 2004,” and then again in 2008. “These dates speak for themselves,” he said.
Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Rajiv Pratap Rudy said Mallya was “no saint” for the NDA regime.
Dissatisfied with Jaitley’s reply over Mallya leaving the country, the Congress and the Left parties staged a walkout.
Meanwhile, the biggest public sector lender State Bank of India denied any laxity on the part of the consortium of banks in seeking reliefs against the defunct Kingfisher Airlines Ltd. (KFAL), its promoters and holding-associated company.
It also refuted certain media reports (Not the IANS) purportedly blaming the SBI, the leader of the consortium, for the crisis and termed these as based on “hearsay and conjecture”.
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Economy, News
Mumbai : (IANS) Adding to the woes of the defunct Kingfisher Airlines boss Vijay Mallya, the Maharashtra sales tax department on Wednesday filed a plea in Bombay High Court seeking recovery of dues amounting to crores of rupees.
The petition was mentioned by ST department counsel Advait Sethna before Justice C.V. Bhadang who asked him to bring it up on Friday and it would be taken up for hearing.
The department has earlier filed two cases in a magistrate’s court against Mallya claiming a liability of service tax dues of Rs.32.68 crore and Rs.23.38 crore for different periods. While one is currently being heard, the other is pending hearing.
However, the department has made a total disputed liability of service tax by Mallya to the tune of Rs.535 crore.
The department apprehends that if Mallya was absent from the trial in India, it could cause grave prejudice to its cases, coming up after various public sector banks have also moved the Supreme Court against the liquor baron.
It has also sought freezing of Mallya’s passports, and restricting his movements abroad as media reports have said his Rajya Sabha term expires on June 30 and he was planning to spend more time abroad.
In its petition, the department has contended that large sums of service tax collected from passengers of the grounded KFA were not deposited with the government and hence Mallya and other airline directors are defaulters of statutory tax, so the amount must be recovered from them.
It has sought high court directions for Mallya’s presence in the court and also before the trial in the magistrate’s court till recovery of the tax dues.
