Tax dept conducts survey on Air India's engineering arm

New Delhi: Public sector companies usually do not attract the attention of the taxman. But officials from the income tax department recently knocked on the doors of a cash-strapped Air India’s subsidiary to check if it was depositing the taxes it was deducting at source, such as those it collected from salary or from payments to suppliers.

The airline, which has been delaying salary payments and even GST, however, said nothing was amiss. “Income tax department routinely conducted TDS survey of AIESL (Air India Engineering Services) recently for past five years. During the survey, certain details were asked, which are being provided,” Air India spokesman Dhananjay Kumar said.

AIESL operates maintenance, repair and overhaul (MROs) at the airline’s major hubs like Mumbai, Hyderabad and Nagpur. A senior official said AI has never defaulted on TDS. “There may have been delays for which we have paid penalties, but never a default,” said an official.