Supreme Court refuses more time to Kingfisher to pay tax dues

In a setback to the cash-strapped Kingfisher Airlines, the Supreme Court on Friday refused to grant it three more weeks to pay around Rs 400 crore in tax deducted at source (TDS) to the Income-Tax Department.

In January, the court had granted the airline four weeks to pay the TDS dues, and Kingfisher was seeking another three weeks.

"It is a serious liability. You have deducted tax from employees but have not paid the Income-Tax Department," the court said today, while dismissing the airline's petition.

Kingfisher has liabilities of more than Rs 15,000 crore in the form of debt, accumulated losses and various dues. Lenders to the airline last month decided to start recovering dues of over Rs 7,500 crore.

It reported a net loss of Rs. 755.17 crore for the third quarter ending December 31, a period in which it did not operate a single flight. The airline also did not report any revenue for the quarter as against Rs. 1,367.71 crore in the year-ago period.

Kingfisher's licence has been suspended since December 31 last year after it failed to come up with a revival plan.