BackGovt said to plan delaying auction of Vijay Mallya’s luxury jet
The service tax department received only one offer when the deadline for pre-bidding ended on Tuesday; the two-day auction was scheduled to open tomorrow
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New Delhi: India is considering delaying the auction of an impounded luxury jet used by ex-billionaire Vijay Mallya as the government received too little interest from prospective bidders, people with direct knowledge of the matter said.
Three or four more parties may be interested and they need to get a chance to inspect the Airbus A319, two of the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is private. The service tax department, which is conducting the auction, received only one offer when the deadline for pre-bidding ended on Tuesday, one person said. The two-day auction was scheduled to open on Thursday.
Sumanto Bhattacharya, a spokesman for Mallya and his UB Group, didn’t immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comments, while D.S. Malik, the spokesman for the finance ministry in New Delhi, didn’t answer two calls to his cell phone.
The service tax department, which seized the plane for non-payment of dues by the collapsed Kingfisher Airlines Ltd., is seeking to recover some money from the sale of the aircraft that’s been grounded for more than three years. Mallya, labelled a fugitive by India after he left for the UK early this year without paying debt owed by the carrier he founded, used the jet with registration VT-VJM, denoting his initials.
In an advertisement about two months ago, the government said the jet was “designed for exotic and luxurious use" and has “attractive exterior and interior layout and design." Bloomberg
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