Public sector oil companies have accused Air India of turning down the promise of payment. The companies said on Tuesday that Air India has reneged on the promise of payment of arrears of 100 crores every month and is not even giving any concrete roadmap of its payments, while the total arrears on the company have reached 5,000 crores.
Indian Oil director (finance) Sandeep Kumar Gupta said that Air India had promised to pay Rs 100 crore every month to the three oil companies, first in June and then in September, to pay back the arrears of aviation turbine fuel (ATF). It is unfortunate that the company is not keeping its promise to pay.
BPCL and HPCL along with IOC have also issued notice to Air India that if the dues are not paid, their oil supply will be stopped.
The company owes IOC Rs 2,700 crore, which includes interest only of Rs 450 crore. Air. India currently buys 13-14 crore oil daily from IOC. Earlier, oil companies had warned Air India on October 5 that if the dues were not paid, they would stop supply from October 11. However, the oil companies have not yet taken this step on the appeal of the airline.