Air India told to pay employees on time

Employees of cash-strapped national carrier Air India can expect to be paid their salaries on time with the government Tuesday telling the airline to clear all outstanding dues.

"Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh has given strict instructions to the airline for making all outstanding payments to Air India employees," a ministry official said.

The national carrier on its part said it was making all efforts to clear dues of employees as its yields and revenues had improved.

Air India said it would pay July salaries to all its employees starting Sep 27.

The salaries of non-licensed category employees, which includes staffers, for August will also be paid by Sep 29.

In addition, the airline will pay the productivity linked incentives for the licensed category which includes pilots, crew members for May.

The payments to the employees will entail an overall expenditure of Rs.230 crore to the airline.

Recently, Air India reported a cash surplus of Rs.48 crore during April-July, reducing the net losses of the airline.

The carrier had a cash deficit of Rs.586 crore during the corresponding period in the previous fiscal.

The airline had also reduced expenditure by 4.4 percent in the same period which stood at Rs.268 crore from like period of 2011.

The government has also released Rs.2,900 crore to the airline under the Rs.4,000-crore budgetary allocation for 2012-13.

The airline is also going to issue non-convertible debentures worth around Rs.7,000 crore soon.

The improved performance should come as a relief to the airline which has a debt of about Rs.21,200 crore as working capital loans, Rs.22,000 crore as long-term loans on fleet acquisition and an accumulated loss of Rs.20,320 crore since 2007.