Mumbai: Cash-strapped national carrier Air India has doubled the gratuity ceiling amount of its employees from Rs 10 lakhs to Rs 20 lakhs.

An Air India letter dated on June 26, said, "It has been decided to implement the enhancement of gratuity payable to employees under Payment of Gratuity Amendment Act 2018,

New Delhi: Air India will not be sold during the remaining tenure of the Modi government and the process could be started afresh only after 2019 general elections, a top government source told Financial Chronicle.

The source, who is directly involved in the strategic disinvestment process of the loss-making carrier, said there is a broad thinking in the government to retain the ‘swadeshi’ tag for the national carrier and hence investment proposals from a foreign carrier would neither be pursued nor entertained.

Even as the government’s efforts to sell majority stake in Air India came a cropper, it has come to light that a section of Air India’s pilots, deputy general managers (DGMs), clerks and other officials has been making some easy money on the side by playing the system. Airbus and Dreamliner pilots’ flying hours and rosters are being nimbly manipulated, with the result that the loss-making national carrier is ending up paying these pilots a lot more than it needs to.

Nearly two dozen Air India flights were delayed across its network including at IGI Airport here today after a technical glitch in the check-in software hampered operations, an airline spokesperson said. The departure timings of as many as 23 flights were affected and the delays owing to the software malfunction stretched from 15-30 minutes, the spokesperson said.

It looks like the government wants to play safe with Air India's privatisation as general elections are just around the corner. Weeks after the divestment process found no takers for the beleaguered national carrier, the government said it would soon review the plan to sell a stake in Air India. The process, now turned out to be a complete failure, was anyway facing stiff resistance from not only the opposition but from some within the government.

India has shelved its sale of Air India after failing to attract buyers, local media quoted a government minister as saying – a decision that could exacerbate the carrier’s financial woes and representing a setback for government efforts to cut debt. Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu said plans to privatise the carrier have been dropped for now due to factors such as the looming election and high oil prices, according to Times of India which cited news agency PTI.

The government has decided not to go ahead with Air India stake sale in an election year and will provide required funds for its operations, a senior official said today.

The decision comes less than 3 weeks after the proposed 76 per cent strategic stake sale in debt laden national carrier failed to attract any bidder.

Now that the Air India sale process has come a cropper, and the government is reportedly looking at listing Air India (AI) in order to make it a truly independent company, the obvious question is who will buy it? As per the plan, once the government stake in Air India falls to below 50%, an independent board and a brand-new team can be appointed to fly the airline into profitability—once the stake is below 50%,

Every other day, there are reports that the government is tweaking the Air India sale terms in order to make it attractive for buyers.

However, in doing so, the government essentially appears to be treating the symptoms and not the disease. The main problem with the Air India sale is that nobody will be willing to buy it in its current form.

The government is considering revising the terms of sale for Air India, including offering a 100 per cent stake, after its latest attempt to sell 76 per cent of the debt-ridden airline failed to draw even a single bid.

Transaction advisor EY has cited the clause of the government holding a minority stake in the state carrier as the biggest reason for the failed disinvestment bid.

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