Accounts in line with generally accepted standards: Air India

State-owned Air India is preparing its accounts in line with the generally accepted accounting principles and standards, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha said today.

This follows Air India disputing CAG audit with regard to non-provisioning of depreciation on some planes.

The minister, in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, also said the airline had a difference of opinion with the CAG audit on the non-provision of depreciation on account of nine aircraft sale.

"The major areas where the Air India (AI) had a difference of opinion with audit was on the non-provision of depreciation amounting to Rs 306.43 crore on nine B-787 aircraft which were transferred by AI to 'Current Assets' under the head of 'Assets held for Disposal'," Sinha said.
 

The airline had posted an operating profit of Rs 105 crore in the fiscal year ended March 2016.

However, the apex auditor last month said the airline "actually incurred" an operating loss of Rs 321.4 crore last fiscal instead of an operating profit as reported by it.

While making it clear that there was no fudging of numbers, officials at the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had said figures reported by the airline are "actually under-reporting of loss".

Another major area of audit observation was where the auditors wanted a provision in respect of negative net worth of the subsidiary companies, especially in the case of Hotel Corporation of India Ltd (HCI), the minister said.

Air India is preparing its accounts in line with the generally accepted accounting principles and standards in force issued by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), he said in reply to another question.

All mandatory provisions which were required to be provided in the books of accounts in terms of the accounting standards have been made in the books of accounts of the respective years, the minister said.

Further, certain discretionary provisions which were disputed were shown as "Contingent Liability" and cases wherever Air India had a different view as compared to that of the Audit, a separate disclosure in the accounts was made justifying the same, he said.