New Delhi: There's good news for the 40,000-odd employees of Air India. The finance ministry on Friday released Rs 250 crore as advance equity infusion so that the cash-strapped airline can meet its commitments - mainly salaries - this month. The merged AI-Indian Airlines entity has an annual salary bill of about Rs 3,200 crore. However, the vendors and lenders will have to wait to get their huge accumulated dues.
"After last fiscal's equity infusion of Rs 2,000 crore into AI, the government has said it will put in Rs 1,200 crore this year. On Friday, Rs 250 crore was sanctioned as advance infusion and a note is being prepared for the remaining Rs 950 crore. Combined with dues for VVIP and evacuation flights that other ministries owe to AI, we expect Rs 1,700-1,800 crore infusion from the government into AI this fiscal," said senior aviation ministry officials.
More importantly, the ministry expects the government move of giving Rs 250 crore to AI will generate some confidence among bankers to restructure the airline's life-threatening debt of close to Rs 40,000 crore. Consulting firm Deloitte, which was asked by the aviation ministry to vet a turnaround plan prepared by AI management, had picked several holes mainly on the grounds of exaggerated expectations.
11/06/11 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India
To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline
0 comments:
Post a Comment