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If I were not a minister, I would be bidding for Air India: Goyal
As the government works on divesting debt-laden Air India, Union Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday said if he was not a minister, he would be bidding for the airline.
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Air India has been in the red for long and the government is now in the process of finalising the contours for its disinvestment.
To a query on proposed disinvestment of Air India, BPCL and other firms, Goyal said in the first term, the government had inherited an economy which was in pretty terrible shape.
Steps were taken to put the economy back in shape and if the government had looked at divesting these jewels, it would not have got a great value. He was talking at a session on ‘Strategic Outlook: India’ at the WEF 2020 here.
“If I weren’t a minister today, I would be bidding for Air India. It has some of the best bilaterals the world over... a well-managed and efficient Air India with lot more good aircraft put in using these bilaterals is nothing short of a gold mine to my mind,” Goyal said.
Bilaterals refers to an agreement between two countries that allows each other’s airlines to operate services with a specific number of seats.
Goyal holds the portfolios of Railways as well as Commerce and Industry. “India today is a land where you have equal opportunity, you can work with integrity...,” the minister said, adding that he thinks a good job has been done in cleaning up the banks and strengthening them.
The RBI and the government have taken various measures to address bad loan woes and other issues at public sector banks.
“I do hope that everybody in the room does not have an impression that public sector banks haven’t done a good job. World over and if I may take the example of the world’s biggest economy, way back in 2008 and 09, it was not government banks that caused the economic collapse, it was all private banks. “We in India, enough private banks that have not done us great glory. On the contrary, if you ask me, banks which have been run by the government for 30-40 years, they have done some great service to the nation,” Goyal said.
Swamy not in favour of AI divestment
The Centre’s plan to sell Air India may face political and legal headwinds with senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy raising the red flag against the decision. Days before the launch of bidding process by inviting Expressions of Interest from potential suitors, Swamy has warned against such move, saying the issue was currently being discussed by a Parliamentary panel. “Right now, it (Air India disinvestment) is before the consultative committee and I am a member of that. I have been asked to give a note which will be discussed in the next meeting. They can’t go ahead without that,” he said, adding “If they do, I will go to court. They know that too.” A vocal opponent of Air India privatisation, Swamy had earlier suggested to list 49 pc of Air India shares on stock exchanges while government holds 51 pc in the carrier as an alternative to selling its entire stake to private companies. It is reliably learnt that the Rajya Sabha member had expressed reservations over privatisation of Air India the meeting of a Parliamentary consultative committee earlier this month.
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