Firstpost: New Delhi: Monday, October 01, 2018.
The government owes a cash-strapped Air
India a total outstanding of Rs 1146.86 crore for VVIP charter flights,
according to the latest response from the national carrier to an RTI
application.
According to the details furnished by Air
India on 26 September to applicant Commodore Lokesh Batra (retd), the Defence
Ministry has outstanding bills of Rs 211.17 crore, Cabinet Secretariat and PMO
Rs 543.18 crore and External Affairs Ministry Rs 392.33 crore.
Some of the oldest pending bills for the
visits of the president, the vice president, and the evacuation flights are
nearly 10-year-old, the data provided by Air India says. In a previous reply
furnished in March this year, the total outstanding bills were at Rs 325 crore
on 31 January which have now risen to Rs 1146.86 crore, it shows.
Chartered aircraft for VVIPs president,
vice president and prime minister for their visits abroad are provided by Air
India, which modifies its commercial jets to suit the needs of the travelling
dignitaries.
The bills for these aircraft are paid
from the exchequer by the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of External Affairs
(MEA), the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and the Cabinet Secretariat. The
Comptroller and Auditor General had flagged the issue of pending payments from
the government to Air India in its report in 2016.
"Hence considering the significant
quantum of pending dues and in the context of government support to AIL for a
turnaround, more efforts need to be made for early action for reimbursement of
dues by both AIL and government," it had said.
Batra said some of the outstanding bills
are pending since 2006 but even the CAG observations have not deterred the
government to clear them. The debt burden of the national carrier, which is
grappling with tough business conditions, is estimated to be more than Rs
50,000 crore.
Earlier this year, the government's
efforts for strategic disinvestment of debt-laden Air India failed to take off.
Air India is staying afloat on a bailout package extended by the previous UPA
regime in 2012.