Govt seeks nod to spend Rs 3.73 L cr more, to infuse Rs 62K cr in AIAHL

DELHI: The government sought Parliament's nod to infuse over Rs 62,000 crore into the company that holds residual assets and liabilities of Air India after its privatisation, as part of over Rs 3.73 lakh crore additional spending planned in the current financial year.

The extra spending would include Rs 58,430 crore by way of additional fertiliser subsidy, Rs 53,123 crore towards payment of pending export incentives and Rs 22,039 crore to rural development ministry for transfer to National Rural Employment Guarantee Fund.

Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary tabled the second batch of supplementary demands for grants in the Lok Sabha envisaging a net cash outgo of over Rs 2.99 lakh crore and Rs 74,517 crore extra expenditure would be matched by savings by different ministries.

Later, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman tabled the supplementary demands for grants for 2021-22 in the Rajya Sabha.

As per the document, Rs 62,057 crore would be given to the Civil Aviation Ministry for equity infusion in Air India Assets Holding Company (AIAHL) for repayment of past government guaranteed borrowing and past dues/liabilities of Air India.

In October, the government signed the share purchase agreement with Tata Sons for the sale of Air India, along with low-cost carrier Air India Express and ground handling arm AISATS, for Rs 18,000 crore.

The amount includes payment of Rs 2,700 crore in cash and take over Rs 15,300 crore of the carrier's debt.

As of August 31, Air India had a total debt of Rs 61,562 crore. Of the total amount, Talace (a Tata Group company) will take over Rs 15,300 crore and the remaining Rs 46,262 crore will be transferred to AIAHL.

As per the supplementary demands for grants, an additional Rs 2,628 crore would be given towards loans and advances to Air India for recoupment of advance from Contingency Fund of India.

The additional fertiliser subsidy includes Rs 43,430 crore on account of payment towards indigenous and imported Phosphatic and Potassic (P&K) subsidy and Rs 15,000 crore towards urea subsidy scheme.

Besides, the Department of Food and Public Distribution would be given an additional Rs 49,805 crore for meeting expenditure towards various schemes of food storage and warehousing.