The Amit Shah-led committee, in its first meeting, did not take any decision on divestment of Air India and a second meeting will be held soon to take the issue of divestment forward.
“First meeting took place. It was a very productive meeting. We are going to take all decisions that have to be taken in a defined period of time,” aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri told reporters after the meeting.
“Process of divestment of Air India is truly under way. Second meeting of the group of ministers soon,” Puri further said.
The meeting, which was attended by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, commerce and railway minister Piyush Goyal, discusses issues related to the divestment of almost 100% stake in the national carrier.
The Modi government’s earlier attempt to divest 76% stake in Air India drew a blank primarily because probable buyers did not want to show any interest in buying the national carrier with government staying an owner.
The government is also looking at selling the airline by taking away all its working capital debt.
The government has already taken Rs 29,400 crore of working capital debt from the airline company, Which halved Air India’s Rs 59,000-crore debt.
Of the Rs 30,000 crore left in the books, the government is looking at an option to take another Rs 15,000 crore of debt from the airline bringing down the airline debt to Rs 15,000 crore, which was taken to buy the aircraft.
Source: Economic Times