NEW DELHI: The Prime Minister's Office did a detailed review of debt-ridden
Air India on Friday . The PMO is learnt to have asked AI to improve its certain operational and financial parameters and agreed to look at the airline's demand for debt restructuring when that happens.
The high level review was conducted by principal secretary to the PM, Nripendra Misra, in presence of aviation ministers
A G Raju
,
Jayant Sinha
, aviation secretary R N Choubey and
AI chief Ashwani Lohani
.
AI's total loan is about Rs 50,000 crore, of which Rs 28,000 crore is working capital loan at an interest rate of 10%. It is seeking to convert, whatever possible of this working capital loan to 7% LIC loan. Switching Rs 10,000 crore alone will lead to a saving of Rs 300 crore annually in debt servicing, the airline says.
Jayant Sinha, who was junior FM before coming to aviation, has worked out a financial plan for AI that includes debt restructuring and shifting to cheaper loan from LIC.
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