Centre owes Air India Rs 33.69 cr for VVIP flights till July 31

The Union Government owes Air India a total of Rs 33.69 crore as of July 31, according to information released by Air India in response to a Right to Information petition.

The outstanding dues for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s flights amount to Rs 7.19 crore, while those for the president’s flights amount to Rs 6.12 crore. The outstanding dues for the vice-president’s flights amount to Rs 10.21 crore.

The largest outstanding bill amount from the office was Rs 4.25 crore for travel between March 11, 2020, and March 15, 2020.

The Ministry of Defence handles the president’s flights. The biggest outstanding bill amount from the President’s Office was Rs 4.45 crore for travel between November 5, 2008, and November 8, 2008. Pratibha Patil was the president of India at the time.

The single largest outstanding bill amount from the vice-president’s office was Rs 5.95 crore for travel between October 14, 2016, and October 20, 2016. Hamid Ansari was the vice-president at that time.

The external affairs ministry also owed Rs 7.21 crore to Air India for evacuation flights, and Rs 2.94 crore for flights of foreign dignitaries, as of July 27.

Retired Commodore Lokesh Batra had filed the RTI application.

Earlier, Batra had filed a similar RTI application seeking data about outstanding dues for flights of VVIPs till March 31, 2019.

On October 8, Tata Sons had won the bid to Air India for Rs 18,000 crore.