Vijay Mallya: A Beer Belly

Shedding the assets seized from Vijay Mallya is turning out to be a tough job for lenders and tax authorities

- Nachiket Kelkar

In one of the hangars at the Mumbai International Airport, lies an Airbus A319. The luxury jet once had the pride of place in Vijay Mallya’s possessions, and was the envy of the corporate world. Now it is like an unwanted orphan. The service tax department has been looking to auction the jet to recover ₹ 33 crore that Kingfisher Airlines owes it, but four attempts have so far failed. The reserve price for the aircraft was set at ₹ 152 crore. Only one buyer turned up with a bid of ₹ 1.09 crore, which was rejected for being too low.

Not too far from the airport is the Kingfisher House, the erstwhile corporate headquarters of the now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines. The office, spread over 17,000 square feet in Vile Parle, has been put up for auction three times. Even after SBICaps Securities, which is overseeing the sale, reduced the reserve price from ₹ 150 crore in the first auction to ₹ 135 crore in the second and then to ₹ 115 crore in the third, no buyers turned up.

Tax authorities and Enforcement Directorate and the many banks that lent Kingfisher Airlines a whole lot of money have been trying hard to recover some of it by selling his possessions. But, just as Mallya has been difficult to catch, it has not been easy for the lenders to sell off his properties, too.

Kingfisher Airlines owes ₹ 9,000 crore to banks in loans and interest payments. Mallya, who fled to Britain in March 2016, is wanted in India in many cases, including loan and tax defaults and money laundering. After declaring him a proclaimed offender, the ED has seized many of his assets.