As Tata Group wins bid for Air India, Congress asks 'What did the government gain?'

Hours after Tata Sons, via their wholly-owned subsidiary Talace Pvt Ltd, won the bid for acquiring national carrier Air India, Congress on Friday questioned the move asking 'Which type of privatization is this?' Citing that there was no benefit of privatizing the air carrier company, as there was still over Rs 45,000 crore debt retained by the Government of India, Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate asked, "What did the government gain by this?"

In the bidding for Air India, in total seven bids were received, of which 5 did not qualify. The bids that made the cut were that of Tata Sons and Ajay Singh, the promoter of SpiceJet. Tata Sons placed the winning bidding at Rs.18,000 crore. Air India's debt currently stands at Rs 61,562 crore. Of this, Tata Sons will retain Rs 15,300 crore worth debt while the remaining Rs 46,262 crore of debt will be retained by a company that will be spun off, called AIHL, which will continue to be owned by the Government. 

'Cleaning the mess created by successive Congress governments': BJP

It is pertinent to mention here that Congress in 2019 had posed in front of the BJP-led Central government about the future of Air India. Taking to their official Twitter handle, the party had asked, "How much longer will the govt fund a loss-making airline with taxpayers' money knowing its accumulated losses are increasing every year?" Today, reposting the tweet, the BJP Twitter handle answered the question saying, "Modi Government: Cleaning the mess created by successive Congress governments, which were too incompetent to solve any problems themselves."

With the winning bid of Rs.18,000 crore, apart from a 100% stake in Air India and its low-cost arm - Air India Express, a 50% stake in ground-handling company Air India SATS Airport Services Private Limited (AISAT) will also come into the ownership of Tata Group.