Government is considering writing off Rs 4,500 crore cash loss of Air India and infusing additional equity of Rs 6,750 crore over a 10-year period, as lenders of the beleaguered carrier tonight broadly approved its debt recast plan.
With the go-ahead from the lenders, civil aviation ministry would in the “next few days” start preparing a note for the Cabinet on both counts, official sources said.
At a two-hour meeting with officials of the ministry and the national carrier, representatives of a consortium of 14 banks led by SBI approved the debt recast plan, which had got the green signal from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) last week, sources said. This crucial meeting came a day ahead of the meeting of the Air India Board here. The total debt of Air India, consisting of aircraft loans and working capital loans total Rs 43,777.01 crore. The working capital loan is Rs 21,511.10 crore while the aircraft loan is Rs 21,412.06 crore, latest figures show.
The approval of the debt restructuring plan would ease the massive debt servicing burden of the troubled airline. The RBI had last Thursday approved the extension of its loan tenures from 10 to 15 years.
The bank representatives are understood to have sought clarifications on certain regulatory issues from the RBI, the sources said, adding they wanted to become part of a proposed committee to be set up to monitor the implementation of Air India’s overall turnaround plan.
Detailed discussions were carried out with the bankers on various aspects of Air India’s precarious financial situation, apart from its balance sheet, financial position and future projects, the sources said.
After tomorrow’s Board meeting, a Group of Ministers headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee would meet.
Thereafter, the Cabinet would decide on the crucial issue of infusing fresh equity of Rs 6,750 crore and writing off of cash losses of Rs 4,500 crore, they said.
Under the Rs 18,000 crore Corporate Debt Restructuring (CDR) proposal, the lenders are to decide on extending the tenure of Rs 11,000 crore short-term loans into long term loans of 15 years and convert Rs 7,000 crore debt into equity.
Air India also owes Rs 2,300 crore to public sector oil marketing companies, Rs 480 crore as interest on working capital loans, Rs 200 crore as interest on aircraft loans, Rs 350 crore towards employees wages, Rs 367 crore to other vendors and Rs 75 crore to airport operators.
The national carrier, under the aegis of SBI Caps, had submitted a restructuring proposal to RBI seeking its permission to extend the loan tenures, among other issues.
The national carrier has registered a loss of Rs 5,548.26 crore during 2008-09, Rs 5,552.44 crore during 2009-2010 and Rs 6,994 crore (provisional) during 2010-11.
