The cabinet has cleared disinvestment of national airline, Air India which has floundered amid stiff competition from no-frills rivals and reported at least seven years of losses. Announcing the decision, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said an in-principal approval for divestment of Air India has been taken, but did not say if it will be an outright sale or partial divestment. “The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has given its approval to fourth tranche recommendations of NITI Aayog on strategic disinvestment of CPSE (strategic disinvestment of Air India and five of its subsidiaries) based on the recommendations of Core Group of Secretaries on Disinvestment (CGD),” he said.
A Civil Aviation Ministry note for stake sale in Air India was considered by the cabinet. The airline, which was afloat on a INR 30,231 crore nine-year bailout programme approved in 2012, has about INR 52,000 crore of debt. It is hampered by debt and servicing costs, which largely eroded its recovery. Air India, which made an operating profit of about IN 100 crore in 2015-16 on back of drop in oil prices, but posted a net loss of INR 3,840 crore, has seen its market share shrink to 12.9 per cent from 35 per cent a decade ago.
“All the aspect would be decided by the group. The Prime Minister would constitute the group; obvisouly the last word is of the cabinet,” Jaitley said. The group on Air India-specific Alternative Mechanism headed by the finance minister will include Civil Aviation Minister and other concerned ministers.
The group will guide the process on strategic disinvestment from time to time and decide treatment of unsustainable debt of Air India, hiving off of certain assets to a shell company and demerger and strategic disinvestment of three profit-making subsidiaries.
Besides, it will also decide on the quantum of disinvestment in Air India and the universe of bidders.
