Aamby Valley City, February 05: Sahara Group chief Subrata Roy On Thursday said his company is open to all options to settle the row with Jet Airways over non-payment of instalments in the Air Sahara buyout deal.
“We are open to all options (to settle the dispute with Jet Airways) but now the case is in the court–let the court decide,” Sahara Group managing worker and chairman Subrata Roy said.
Sahara India Commercial Corporation in March 2009 had filed a petition in the Bombay High Court claiming that the Naresh Goyal-owned Jet Airways defaulted on the instalment due towards payment for the acquisition of Sahara Airlines (now JetLite), and hence it was liable to pay the original deal amount of Rs 2,000 crore and not the re-negotiated amount of Rs 1,450 crore.
Sahara also claimed the price was brought down to Rs 1,450 crore from Rs 2,000 crore provided Jet would make the payments on time. But Sahara said there was default in payment and, therefore, concession on the takeover deal was not tenable.
Jet bought Air Sahara in April 2007 for Rs 1,450 crore after an arbitration award. It paid Rs 900 crore and agreed to pay the balance in four instalments.
Jet Airways lawyer had earlier contended that in March 2008 the Income Tax Department demanded tax dues of Rs 107 crore from Air Sahara.
According to Jet, this amount was due from the Sahara Group as it pertained to the period before the acquisition.
While paying Sahara the instalment of Rs 137 crore last March, Jet deducted Rs 37 crore against the IT dues. This year too, Jet deducted Rs 50 crore on the same account.
Jet said that Sahara has now taken a stand that it is not liable to pay the I-T dues.
Earlier, Sahara had secured order from the Bombay High Court to attach the movable properties of Jet. However, Jet got a stay on the order. The court stopped further attachment, but said the properties already attached would remain unaffected.
-PTI