new Delhi: Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said on Wednesday that Air India was incurring a daily loss of about Rs 20 crore, on which public’s hard earned money was being spent, so after its disinvestment, that money is now being put to good use for social development. works can be done. Replying to the ‘Discussion on Demands for Grants for the year 2022-23 under the control of the Ministry of Civil Aviation’ in the Lok Sabha, Scindia said that Air India started with the private sector, then it was nationalized and it was run successfully for many years. .
He said that considering the situation of Air India today, it has to be understood that why this situation has arisen? The Civil Aviation Minister said that in the year 2005-06, when Air India was a profitable company of only about Rs 14 crore, at that time Air India had entered into an agreement to buy a total of 111 aircraft. Taking a veiled attack on the opposition, he said that now the question arises that what was the reason for this? “What are the reasons for this, I cannot say anything about that.”
Scindia said that then 111 aircraft are bought with a loan of Rs 55,000 crore and later 15 aircraft are sold in 2013-14. Apart from this, two completely different cultures, Air India and Indian Airlines, are merged and since then both the profit making companies started making losses, he said. The minister said that from 2007-08 to 2020-21, Air India was incurring a loss of Rs 3,000 to 7,500 crore every year, which together amounted to Rs 85,000 crore.
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He said that in this way Air India got into huge debt with a loss of Rs 85,000 crore in 14 years. Scindia said that Prime Minister Modi has resolved that this deficit will have to be closed and disinvestment will have to be done so that the money of the country and its people can be saved and the citizens of the country can be benefited through schemes like Ujjwala, Jal Jeevan Mission. He said that Air India was incurring a loss of around Rs 20 crore a day and after disinvestment, that money can now be used for social development.
Responding to a query on the future of Air India employees, he said that our shareholder agreement mentions in detail and the first condition is that no employee will be fired for one year. Scindia said that even if an employee has to be removed after one year, then it can be removed only under the Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS). He said that government medical facilities would continue to be given to the retired employees as before. Significantly, the Tata group has acquired the ownership of the public sector company Air India. (agency)