Former Civil Aviation Minister Parful Patel who fought hard to keep Air India from being declared as sick company may now have to declare the national carrier a sick company. The heavy industries and public enterprises ministry now headed by Patel has notified a new criterion to identify state-run firms that are terminally sick. Air India may fall in this category if the new norms are applied to the debt-ridden carrier as per a report in Economic Times.
The new norms, notified by the department of public enterprises a day after Patel took charge, say a financially troubled state-run firm would be considered a 'turnaround ' case only if it had reported profits in three preceding financial years. Also, the profits should be without any grants from the government or a loan waiver from a financial institution.
Air India, if declared sick, would be referred to the Board for Restructuring of Public Sector Enterprise, which falls under the department of public enterprises. The civil aviation ministry had in the past firmly resisted any move to bring the loss-making airline to the board, arguing that the company was not sick.
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