Aviation AI’s debt write-off gets Niti V-C’s vote

New Delhi, Aug. 9: Outgoing Niti Aayog vicechairman Arvind Panagariya said that writing off some debt of the stateowned Air India, so as to make it attractive to prospective investors, could be a “wise” move.

Following a suggestion by Niti Aayog, the Centre is endeavouring to privatise the carrier and a committee has been set up under finance minister Arun Jaitley to carry forward the process.

“I don’t know whether you need to write off debt to find a buyer, I don’t know the market. Transaction advisers are competent on that,” Mr Panagariya told PTI in an interview.

“I am just saying that it’s probably wise to write off part of the debt before this happen,” he added.

On whether there is need for a asset stripping before sale of national carrier, he said, “No, why would you do asset stripping. It’s a well running, well functioning airline.”

Mr Panagariya, who will leave Niti Aayog this month-end to return to academia in the US, further said that there are details which need to be sorted out by the transaction advisers.

As regard the real estate of the Air India, he said: “Real estate part is a separate issue... We made some recommendations and all but not to the level of that details to keep this and sell this.”

Citing provisional figures, MoS (civil aviation) Jayant Sinha recently had said Air India’s total debt stood at `48,876.81 crore at the end of March 2017.