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Import of aircraft
for personal use Ajay Banerjee Tribune News Service New Delhi, August 21 The Customs Department said today that it had found that leading corporates houses got their subsidiary companies listed as non-scheduled airline operators and imported aircraft free of duty using the status of airline operators, while in reality the aircraft was being used by their directors or promoters for personal purposes. The catch is that an aircraft imported by such airline operators to carry passengers do not have to pay import duty. However, in case a company imports a plane for the personal use of its directors or promoters, it has to pay a duty of about 25 per cent of the cost of the plane. Since each plane costs crores of rupees, the corresponding duty also runs into crores. Commissioner, Customs (Preventive), Anoop Swaroop said today that 13 top corporate houses had been issued notices. Another seven companies had deposited the import duty due voluntarily. Out of the 13, nearly Rs 200 crore worth of bank guarantees had been submitted. This bank guarantee is the amount that has been originally evaded and should have rightfully gone to the state exchequer. Most of these companies had also furnished bonds running into crores of rupees. Further investigation is on to find out which companies imported aircraft. At present, the directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA) has issued licences to 70 companies which are listed as airline operators. Hence, many companies are not operating airlines and all records are being scanned. Explaining how the evasion took place, Anoop Swaroop said there was no duty on import of aircraft since 2002. In the budget of 2007, the duty was imposed on the import of aircraft for private use. The department is looking only into cases of import of aircraft after the new ruling was brought in place in May 2007. Now, after the new regulation came into force, the corporates continued to import aircraft using their subsidiary companies. In reality, these planes were not meant for commercial use to be import duty free. A detailed investigation was carried out and it was found that most of the companies that imported the aircraft never issued any tickets and there was no fare structure available. They maintained no log book of the commercial flights, if any, undertaken.These aircraft are plush business jets that corporate companies import for the use of their executives. These jets have master bedrooms, bar lounges and other luxuries. Swaroop, who was flanked by his team, refused to give out the exact amount of duty evaded or the number of aircraft imported since May 2007, but he said investigations were on. Among those issued notices are companies of Reliance, IndiaBulls, Oberoi Hotels, Usha Martin, Bharat Hotels and global vectra helicorp. The companies that have paid import duty due when told to deposit include Jindal Steel, Future Travels, Indian Metals and Ferro Alloys, Sky Airways and Privilege Airways among others.
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