This is not an appropriate time to divest government stake in Air India, which should be given at least five years to revive and its debt written off, a parliamentary panel is likely to tell the government. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture concluded that the government should review its decision to privatise or disinvest Air India and explore the possibility of “an alternative to disinvestment of our national carrier which is our national pride”. “At the end of TAP period, government may evaluate the financial and performance status of Air India and take a decision accordingly,” the panel said. The parliamentary committee, after hearing the views of all stakeholders, “strongly feels that it will not be appropriate at this stage to disinvest when Air India has started earning profit from its operations.”It also said as some of its subsidiaries Air India Air Transport Services Limited (AIATSL), Air India SATS Airport Services Private Limited (AISATS), Alliance Air and Air India Express were making profits, these units should “not be disinvested.”Strongly recommending that the airline’s debt “should be written off by the government”, the revised draft report said, “Air India should be given a chance for at least five years to revive themselves”. “If the disinvestment of Air India and its subsidiaries is inevitable, the Committee emphatically recommends that the interests of employees should be protected,” the revised draft report said.

Source: Hindustan Times January 07, 2018 08:48 UTC