The Hindu Business Line : Steep hike sought in outlay for Air India

THE Ministry of Civil Aviation has proposed a near doubling of Plan outlay for Air India (AI) - from Rs 445.44 crore to Rs 858 crore - in 2002-03 to enable the carrier repay its loans contracted for aircraft acquisition.

For Indian Airlines (IA), however, the Ministry has proposed only a 10 per cent higher outlay of Rs 510 crore as against Rs 460 crore allocated in 2001-02.

These monies will be channelised towards aircraft acquisition, which the airline is set to commence this year.

Only a token amount of Rs 1 crore each has been sought as Budgetary support towards these two national carriers.

In case the Government provides this token amount, it would enable the Ministry seek higher amounts in the ensuing years of the 10th Plan.

The proposal is to seek Budgetary support of Rs 347.16 crore for AI and Rs 395.81 crore for IA for the remaining years of the 10th Plan period (up to 2007).

Officials said that in the case of AI and IA, the Budgetary support sought was the difference between the authorised and the paid-up share capital of the two airlines.

In the case of AI, the Ministry has estimated that the airline is likely to spend around Rs 858 crore in 2002-03, including an expenditure of around Rs 420 crore towards repayment of aircraft loans.

Further, the airline has estimated that it is likely to incur an expenditure of more than Rs 277 crore towards acquisition of leased aircraft.

A token Rs 10 crore provision has also been made towards payment to aircraft manufacturers during the year. In the case of IA, the annual plan has been pegged at Rs 510 crore, of which Rs 478 crore is being sought towards continuing schemes and Rs 32 crore for new schemes.

The Ministry has sought a modest Budgetary support of Rs 97.83 crore for the next fiscal, which works out to around three per cent of the proposed total Plan outlay of Rs 2,550.02 crore.

Roughly over 50 per cent of the total Gross Budgetary Support (GBS) - Rs 54.12 crore - is proposed for Airports Authority of India (AAI).

Around Rs 30.16 crore is being sought for the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS), Rs 8.45 crore for Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Akademi and Rs 3.10 crore for the Directorate of Civil Aviation.

The Ministry is not seeking any GBS for three entities, including AI's wholly-owned subsidiary, Hotel Corporation of India (HCI), Aero Club of India and Pawan Hans Helicopters Ltd.

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