The Income Tax Department has said Kingfisher Airline’s dues to the government would have priority over the other dues of the airline.
The ailing airline owes the department over `350 crore as tax dues. It owes this amount on account of alleged TDS defaults committed many years ago. It had deducted tax at source from employees’ salaries and other payments for many years, but failed to remit it to the government’s account.
The department had earlier attached all assets of the company and is currently in the process of recovering the dues by selling its properties. “There have been media reports that a lender consortium of banks, led by SBI, is laying claim to the property. It is a settled proposition of law that the amount due to the government will have priority over other debts,” the statement said.
This means that the amount due to the I-T Department will have to be settled before the lender consortium of banks can stake claim to the property.