Formation of joint ventures by the Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) has led to loss of revenue to the Airports Authority of India (AAI), according to the Comptroller and Auditor General.
The apex audit body has, in a report tabled in Parliament, said AAI lost Rs 103.29 crore revenue from only three JVs — cargo and car parking operations undertaken — between December 2009 and December 2010.
DIAL has formed 11 JVs for various functions at the airport. The equity shareholding of DIAL in all the JV ranges from 26 to 56 per cent. The revenue share agreed in these ranges from 10 to 61 per cent of the gross revenue they generated.
The GMR-led consortium operates Delhi airport on a revenue share basis and shares 45.99 per cent of the total revenue with AAI.
The report explains that AAI would have earned Rs 161.75 crore as revenue share from cargo and car parking operations; instead they earned only Rs 58.46 crore. DIAL has 26 per cent stake each in both the JVs for cargo and 49.90 per cent stake in the parking JV.
The total revenue from the cargo JVs are at Rs 330.22 crore. Of this, DIAL got only Rs 124.28 crore and AAI got 45.99 per cent of that — Rs 57.15 crore. The car-parking JV earned Rs 21.48 crore and DIAL’s share in it was Rs 2.85 crore. AAI’s share from that was only Rs 1.31 crore.
Without the JVs, AAI’s share from the cargo revenue would have been Rs 151.87 and Rs 9.88 crore from the parking revenue. After the revenue share to AAI reduced, it should have looked into in terms of the agreement signed between the government and the airport operator, the report observed. “Audit did not find on records, corrective action initiated/taken up, if any, by AAI on the independent auditors report.”
CAG also observed that DIAL was “unduly benefitted due to the non-levy of interest on excess annual fee actually received as per the provision of the Operation, Management and Development Agreement (OMDA)”. It recommended amendments to the provisions of the OMDA to include penalty clauses for protecting the interests of the AAI against delayed payments by DIAL.
Maintaining that AAI was not in a position to levy penal interest in case of delayed payment by DIAL due to the absence of enabling provisions in the OMDA, the CAG said “had the AAI managed this contract more effectively, it could have earned additional revenue of 23 to 24 per cent of revenue received”.
