Mukesh Ambani - Tax Evasion in Imports of Jetliners

Mukesh Ambani - Tax Evasion in Imports of Jetliners



Mukesh Ambani gifted an Airbus 319 to his wife but was imported exclusively for Business Use on routes that do not operate scheduled or chartered services thus evading 25% duty.



For example he may use it to fly to Jamnagar from Mumbai in case there is no scheduled service.



Giving hundreds of licenses particularly big jets is SECURITY threat it would be much easier to hijack such private jets operating from airports that lacks security.



Father of Stefi Graff as manager of tennis legend was put in jail for two years to tax evasion.



Ravinder Singh

August23, 2008



‘Personal use of jets will be looked into’

Customs Dept Releases List Of Duty Evaders

Pradeep Thakur | TNN August22, 2008 P-12


New Delhi: Corporate honchos who have been criss-crossing the skies in luxury jets may now have to pay for their flamboyance, with customs authorities not ruling out action against them if it is established that they were using jets in violation of norms.


On Thursday, the customs department released a list of 20 private airlines booked so far. The list, that included companies of some of the country’s top industrialists having made “wilful misrepresentation and suppression of facts”, boasts of a record collection of Rs 1,100 crore in the last two months alone by way of bank guarantees and bonds.


Oberois, Jindals, Suris, Singhanias and many others have joined the Ambani brothers in the list of suspected duty evaders. Their private airlines have already been issued showcause notices.


Reliance Industries chief Mukesh Ambani leads the pack having deposited Rs 597 crore against bond and bank guarantees, followed closely by his younger brother Anil who has deposited Rs 171 crore against the provisional release of his Global 5000 Bombadier worth Rs 145 crore.


Anoop Swarup, commissioner of customs who is heading the special investigative team, said, “From the bill of entry filed during the import of aircraft and other documents showing the use of the aircraft, it appears that some of the corporates have evaded customs duties.”


He said the exact amount would not be available with the department but the duty evasion was certainly in the region of several hundred crores. Swarup said his team was investigating the import of more than 200 aircraft made by at least 70 operators in the last two years.


The other prominent names in the list include the GMR group, Global Vectra owned by an NRI, Taneja Aerospace, Dove Airlines, Indian Metals and Ferro Alloys, Future Travels, Privilege Airways and Airmid Aviation.


Explaining the reasons for booking the airlines, Swarup said, “If an aircraft has been imported for non-scheduled (passenger) services or non-scheduled (charter) services, the said aircraft shall have to be used only for providing non-scheduled passenger or charter services and at no point can it be diverted to personal use. Not even once.”


If it was proved that an aircraft had been diverted to personal use, the airline would have to pay a duty equivalent to 25% of the actual cost of the aircraft, the commissioner said.