India’s taxman is bringing the country’s super-rich down to earth – by seizing their private jets. At least ten luxury aircraft have been impounded by Indian customs officers in the past fortnight and hundreds more are being scrutinised.

Mukesh Ambani, the mogul behind Reliance Industries, India’s largest private company, was among the first to suffer the ignominy of having his wings clipped when officials impounded two of his executive jets.

The brace of seized aircraft included a £30 million Airbus A-319, allegedly bought by Mr Ambani as a birthday present for his wife. Customs officials claim that the jet was imported into India under a scheme that offers tax breaks for aircraft used to ferry ticket-bearing passengers and that Mr Ambani owes import duties of £12 million because it was used exclusively for private trips.

A Reliance spokesman said that the company had “complied with all procedures and documentation”.

Mr Ambani might at least find solace in the fact that his archenemy has been caught under the same tax net. A jet belonging to Reliance ADAG, the conglomerate run by Anil Ambani, Mukesh’s estranged brother, was issued with a seizure notice in Bombay this week after it flew in from London. It is thought that the authorities are seeking payment of more than £4 million on the Global 5000 Bombardier.

Aircraft belonging to GMR, the Indian infrastructure group, Oberoi, the real estate developer, and India-bulls, one of India’s largest retail stockbrokers, were also impounded before their owners put up bank guarantees to have them released.

A source at one of the affected companies said: “They have declared war: officials say anyone who has bought an aircraft is fair game.”

Speculation abounds that a clamp-down on the ultra-rich may have political rewards in Delhi, where, in the run-up to elections, India’s Government is being attacked for failing to ensure that the poor benefit from the country’s economic boom.

The Ambanis’ tax and travel woes are unlikely to be of great concern to most of India. On a quarter of the country’s roads, packed with cows and carts, average speeds are as low as 20mph, the World Bank says. Four out of ten of the rural villages – or a quarter of India’s population – are not linked by an all-weather road.

The aircraft seizures could also help to narrow India’s yawning fiscal deficit. The Government’s tax department could be sitting on a goldmine: as many as 250 private jets may have flown into India under the radar of the authorities in the past two years and according to reports, 65 aircraft owners have so far been identified as flouting tax rules.

With India’s stock market having lost about 40 per cent of its value so far this year, many of the country’s nouveau riche are feeling rather less riche than they did just six months ago and demands for tens of billions of rupees in tax arrears could not come at a worse time.

For the country’s leading high-flyers, however, the greater source of pain is likely to be the thought of travelling on public transport. It has been estimated that India must spend at least $500 billion (£251 billion) to improve its crumbling infrastructure, a sum that stands testimony to the condition of most roads and airports.

Alive to the travel rigours suffered by hoi polloi, the wealthy have ploughed ahead with their own alternatives. The demand for private air travel in India was underscored in April, when the Government gave the nod to fast-track construction of private airports.

Bombay’s tabloids soon carried pictures of the first private helipad to be built in India’s commercial capital without permission from the Indian Cabinet. The work, inevitably, was being carried out on top of a building shared by the Ambani brothers.

Steep take-off of the high-flyers

— India gained 19 dollar billionaires last year. It now has 54 – more than Japan for the first time. It has 123,000 dollar millionaires and their ranks are growing faster than anywhere else in the world

— Worldwide deliveries of private aircraft are expected to top 1,200 this year, the third consecutive record, fuelled by demand from Asia, the Middle East and Russia

— Analysts predict sales will keep rising until at least 2010 and will top £110 billion over the next decade

—On a quarter of India’s highways the average speed is 20 miles per hour

— About 300 million Indians live in homes not connected by an all-weather road

Source: Gapgemini, Merrill Lynch, World Bank, Times database

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