• Notification Date: 26-08-2023
• Notification No: N/A

SpiceJet: Process for Depositing Employees' TDS since FY23 has been 'initiated'

Low-cost carrier SpiceJet Ltd on Friday said the process for depositing employees' TDS has been initiated and that Form 16 is "being gradually released". 

SpiceJet's statement to CNBC-TV18 came after it said in a report that the airline hasn't deposited employee PF for at least 18 months. 

SpiceJet hasn't cleared payments to various vendors and has been delaying slaries to senior employees by up to three weeks, said the report. 

The airline acknowledged that "there has been certain deferral on TDS payment". 

"We hope to deposit a substantial outstanding TDS amount soon," SpiceJet said in a statement. 

On Thursday, SpiceJet told Delhi High Court that it was "struggling to stay afloat" as it was ordered to make a payment to its former owner over money owed. 

In 2018, SpiceJet lost an arbitration case arising out of share transfers from former owner Kalanithi Maran to the company's new management in 2015, making the airline liable to pay $70 million plus interest. Maran later took SpiceJet to court saying he was still owed $48 million. 

In a Delhi High Court hearing on Thursday on Maran's case demanding the dues, SpiceJet said it was struggling financially. 

"We are struggling to stay afloat," the airline's lawyer Amit Sibal told the judge. 

SpiceJet offered to deposit Rs 75 crore within 10 days, but the judge ordered the airline to pay Rs 100 crore by September 10 and warned it could consider seizing the company's assets to recover the dues, if it fails to comply. 

SpiceJet said in a statement it would honour the court order and "make the specified payment within the prescribed timeframe". 

The order comes days after Supreme Court, in a separate case, asked SpiceJet's Managing Director Ajay Singh to appear in court and defend allegations by Credit Suisse claiming certain unpaid dues. 

Both the Delhi High Court case and the Supreme Court case will next be heard on September 11. 

SpiceJet this month reported its highest quarterly profit in four years, helped by a sharp drop in expenses due to fewer flights operated. SpiceJet has also been scrambling to raise funds and restore operations for about a fourth of its fleet, which has been grounded amid battles with its lessors over payments, as competition heats up fiercely in the sector.