The Mumbai Customs department has lodged a claim for additional import duties on two aircraft owned by Mukesh Ambani's Reliance group, including on the Airbus he gave his wife for her birthday, Indian media said on Saturday.
The department seized the aircraft late Thursday but returned them for maintenance and on the condition that they would not be used without permission, the Financial Express newspaper said, quoting an unnamed Customs official.
"The aircraft were imported as non-scheduled carriers but were being used for private purposes. There is a difference in the duties charged," the official said in the report. Non-scheduled or charter carriers attract lower duty than those imported for personal use, he added in the report.
Ambani, the world's fifth-richest man and owner of the country's biggest private company Reliance Industries Ltd, was reported to have given the $55 million Airbus to his wife Neeta last year. The reports differ on the duty amount that the Customs department is claiming, but it could work out to about $14 million.
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