Air India divestment to be completed in 2021, says Civil Aviation Minister

Jun 03,2021

The government is confident that it will be able to complete the divestment of national carrier Air India in 2021, Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri told CNBC-TV18 in an exclusive interaction.

"Air India divestment privatisation will go..they (interested parties) wanted to have a little extra time due to the pandemic people..they have to fly in experts from different parts of the world..We had agreed for a 3-month additional period," Puri said.

"We are on track to complete this in this financial year and even this calendar year," Puri added.

Currently, the bidders are conducting due diligence and looking at Air India books, Puri said, reiterating that the process is being carried out by the Finance Ministry through the department of investment and public asset management.

The divestment process for Air India has moved on to the second stage where financial bids will be received from the interested parties.

This is the second attempt of the Modi government to sell the national carrier as it did not find any takers in the first round itself when it offered to sell a 76 percent stake in Air India in 2018.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had also said in her Union Budget speech for 2021-22 that the government will complete the divestment process of national carrier Air India and Pawan Hans during 2021-22.

The process of stake sale in the national carrier was initiated in January 2019.