Piyush Goyal says he would have bought Air India, if he could; calls it a goldmine
Even as the government desperately tries to sell debt-laden Air India, union minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday said that a well-managed and efficient airline is nothing short of a goldmine. “If I were not minister today, I would be bidding for Air India,” union commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal also told CNBC TV-18. Air India’s losses currently stand at around Rs 80,000 crore. A few days back, civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri asked the disinvestment-bound national carrier to set up an internal mechanism committee comprising members from the management and its various trade unions to sort out privatisation-related issues of employees, news agency PTI recently reported citing unidentified sources. Earlier in 2018, the Modi government proposed to offload 76 per cent in the debt-struck national carrier, while retaining 24 percent with it. However, it didn’t get any bidders for the same.
On January 7, a group of ministers headed by union home Minister Amit Shah approved the draft EoI and Share Purchase Agreement (SPA) for the disinvestment of Air India.
