Asserting that Air India will retain its public sector character, the government today said it plans to pump in capital in the cash-strapped carrier, which has decided to defer its future aircraft inductions in the backdrop of mounting losses of Rs 7,200 crore.
“I took up the issue with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who said that Air India is our national pride and we will do everything possible to see that it becomes a better organisation,” Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said, replying to a calling attention motion in the Rajya Sabha.
He said the government was working on equity infusion and a soft loan as a measure to minimise the adverse financial situation of the national carrier.
“We want Air India to continue in the public sector ... We will not divest Air India,” Patel said charging the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with initiating moves during the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government to sell off the company.
Accepting that the results of the merger of erstwhile carriers Air India and Indian Airlines were “not up to our satisfaction”, he however said it would be unfair to say that merger per se was wrong. It was not a “knee-jerk” decision, as a well-laid down process was followed.
“If there is something wrong, we can correct it. The fact is that everything was well thought of,” Patel said.
The airline, which was forced to defer payment of June salary to majority of its staff, has piled up a loss of Rs 7,200 crore as on March 31,2009.
For the fiscal 2008-09, the airline is estimated to have incurred a loss of about Rs 5,000 crore in a difficult global aviation market.
Noting that Air India’s equity base was only Rs 145 crore, Patel said with this equity base, it had placed orders for 111 aircraft from Boeing and Airbus worth over $11 billion.
“The government, in the past, has never assisted Air India, unlike governments in other countries that have assisted their airlines in similar difficulty,” the Minister said. Taking on the BJP for its criticism of United Progressive Alliance (UPA) policies towards the airline, Patel said during the NDA rule, a public tender was issued to sell off Air India. It was withdrawn only when the lone bidder — Tata-Singapore Airline consortium — pulled out of the race.
He said the UPA government had mooted the idea of issuing an initial public offer (IPO) after the merger of the airline, “but the market conditions then were not conducive to this process”.
On corruption charges levelled by some members, a few whom were also demanding a parliamentary probe, Patel said “we want to give highest priority to transparency. We would be willing for any level of probe.”
Referring to the steps being taken to strengthen the national carrier, he said the government wanted to bring more transparency in the working and give it more autonomy.
