The Hindu Business Line : Five domestic airlines owe Rs 2,225 cr to oil PSUs

New Delhi, July 17 Kingfisher Airlines, Jet Airways, National Aviation Company of India Ltd, Paramount and SpiceJet owe Rs 2,225.52 crore to the public sector oil marketing companies till May-end, the Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Mr Murli Deora, informed the Lok Sabha on Thursday.

While Kingfisher Airlines owed the three oil marketing companies Rs 950.46 crore, Jet Airways had an outstanding of Rs 760.07 crore and NACIL owed Rs 472.93 crore till May-end, the Minister said.

The Chennai-based Paramount Airways had to pay Rs 25.82 crore and the Delhi-based SpiceJet owed Rs 16.24 crore, the Minister added. The three OMCs are Indian Oil Corporation, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation and Bharat Petroleum Corporation.

The outstanding of the five airlines to the three oil marketing firms stood at Rs 3,658.06 crore till the end of December last year. At that time the outstanding against NACIL was Rs 1,311.91 crore, Jet Airways (Rs 1,266.21 crore), Kingfisher Airlines (Rs 1,030.08 crore), Paramount (Rs 36.56 crore) and SpiceJet (Rs 13.30 crore), the Minister said.

“In case the airlines fail to pay their dues, OMCs take action for recovery of dues in line with the mutually agreed commercial terms between them and the airlines. The defaulting airlines are also put on ‘cash and carry’ and interest is recovered on all overdue payments,” the Minister said.

This issue was also taken up with the Ministry of Civil Aviation, which advised the airlines to clear their outstanding dues promptly, Mr Deora said.

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