Mallya gives two undated cheques

New Delhi: The issue of Kingfisher settling its dues of well over Rs 250 crore with the Airports Authority of India has just got murkier. On Monday, Kingfisher chief Vijay Mallya met AAI chairman K Ramalingam and two cheques with a combined value of Rs 50 crore were given as part payment. However, top sources said the cheques don't have any date and can't be presented. Kingfisher did not give any comment on this and Ramalingam said the two parties are in talks to settle the issue of payment.
Last week, AAI had threatened to encash the airline's bank guarantee of Rs 60-70 crore if it failed to come up with some cash or a concrete plan to clear them by Monday. Incidentally, Kingfisher is the only private airline with massive dues to AAI as only national carrier AI has dues of over Rs 650 crore but that is being treated as an issue between two government agencies.
"What do we do with these cheques without any date? Kingfisher's dues remain as they were," said a senior official. Top ministry officials on Tuesday are learnt to have told Mallya to clear the AAI dues, something that did not go down well with the tycoon. Mallya had asked the aviation ministry to allow him to clear the dues in installments. While the ministry got installments from oil ministry as three biggest airlines AI, Jet and Kingfisher were involved, this time it says only one private airline Kingfisher cant be given this special facility as all others are paying almost on time.
19/11/08 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

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Categories: Airports Nov 2008, Kingfisher Nov 2008