Mallya promises Kingfisher staff salaries by 10 April

Kingfisher airline’s chairman and managing director, Vijay Mallya, has promised employees that payment of salaries will be resumed by 10 April after tax authorities defreezed its bank accounts.

“All junior staff will be paid before Easter ie on Wednesday April 4th. All pilots and engineers will be paid on Monday April 9th and Tuesday April 10th,” Mallya told employees.

The bank accounts of the struggling airline, which were frozen by tax officials, were unfrozen on Sunday after the airline paid Rs 64 crore to various tax authorities before March 31, Mallya said.

“I am pleased to advise you that the formalities of un-freezing our bank accounts was completed yesterday following our payment of Rs 44 crore to the Income Tax and Rs 20 crores to the Service Tax authorities before March 31,” Mallya wrote.

More from Business

Hyundai India’s Rs 27,870 crore IPO oversubscribed by 2.28X, largely driven by institutional investors How Indian fintech startups are driving Malaysia’s UPI-like digital payments revolution

[caption id=“attachment_262967” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“AP”]  [/caption]

Meanwhile, the airline’s shares tanked 6 percent on reports of a possible protest by its employees who have not been paid salaries since December. The Kingfisher staffwarned that they would gather outside Kingfisher House at Vile Parle ifMallya did not meet them to sort out salary issues. According to various TV reports,pilots have not been paid salaries for the last five months.

In the past one year, pilots, ground staff and engineers have been crying hoarse about the delay in salary payments.

The airline had on 27 March suspended operations to several cities as per a new holding plan, and asked staff to stay at home till it managed fresh funding. While the airline has suspended its international operations for the time being, even various domestic routes have been put on hold. In fact the airline is said to have suspended three flights from Delhi and one flight from Chennai today.

Impact Shorts

More Shorts

Tata Harrier EV vs Mahindra XEV 9e: Design and road presence compared

As Trump weaponises tariff, Fed sees a bigger worry: Not jobs, but rising prices in America

Mallya is under pressure from his airline’s lenders to inject equity into Kingfisher, which laden under debt of $1.3 billion, has slashed its flight schedule and grounded most of its fleet. Last week rumours were abuzz that Mallya was selling his stake in cash cow United Breweries group to generate funds for his dying airline.