Sahara Takes Jet Airways to Court

New Delhi: Jet Airways (India) Ltd. said Sahara India Commercial Corp. has moved the Bombay High Court, seeking an increase in the payment that the carrier made to acquire Sahara Airlines Ltd.
Jet Airways - which is paying part of the acquisition price in installments - deducted some amount from the installments after the income tax department raised certain issues, Jet Airways said in a statement late Monday.
"The income tax department has raised certain demands (payments) on Sahara Airlines for the period prior to the takeover," the statement said.
Jet Airways, India's biggest domestic carrier by market share, had agreed to buy Sahara Airlines in April 2007 for 14.50 billion rupees ($283.7 million). It paid about 9 billion rupees in the same month and started operating Sahara Airlines as a low-cost carrier, renaming it JetLite. It had agreed to pay the remaining 5.50 billion rupees in four interest-free equal installments annually from March 30, 2008.
Jet Airways said the tax demands were unrelated to the activities of JetLite after the takeover. "It is the position of Jet Airways that this liability is to be borne by Sahara India," the statement added.
Jet Airways said it won't make further comments as the matter is with the court.
31/03/09 Dow Jones Newswires/The Wall Street Journal

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Categories: Jet Airways Mar 2009