At a meeting held yesterday to discuss about the payment of dues to oil companies, a decision was taken that India’s airlines will clear their outstanding dues to oil companies in six monthly installments and will be given an extended credit limit of 90 days to purchase the current requirement of aviation fuel. The meeting was presided over by Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel and Petroleum Minister Murli Deora and also attended by various airlines heads like Vijay Mallya, Chairman and Chief Executive, Kingfisher Airlines; S.K. Dutta, Executive Director, Jet Airways and Raghu Menon, Chairman, Air India. As well as Chiefs of state-run oil firms like Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL).
Patel told reporters that cumulatively, the dues of the airlines industry to the oil companies are about Rs 2,500-2,800 crore (Rs 25-Rs 28 billion). We have decided that this will be cleared by the airlines in six-monthly installments by March next year. Patel further added that for current uplift of Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF), oil companies will extend a credit limit of 90 days to all airlines. |