Bhubaneswar: While the government has permitted 100% Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) by Non-Resident Indian’s in loss making public sector airlines Air India under the automatic route, Rajya Sabha member and senior BJP leader Subramanian Swami has called for proper scrutiny before allowing any FDI proposal.
“Air India is now allowed to sell 100% of its shares to any NRI ready to shell out the $$. But before the NRI can lay his or her hand on the shares there has to be scrutiny on how the money was earned or is it hawala re-routed FDI into India” he twitted.
Air India is now allowed to sell 100% of its shares to any NRI ready to shell out the $$. But before the NRI can lay his or her hand on the shares there has to be a scrutiny on on how the money was earned or is it hawala re routed FDI into India
— Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) March 4, 2020
The veteran leader has been opposing the privatization of government-owned Airlines for the last several years. Last month he had said that being a government-owned Airlines; Air India conducts several special humanitarian and secret missions one cannot expect a private airline to do.
“Air India serves a number of special tasks; one cannot expect a private airline to do. If we take the recent example of the Chinese City of Wuhan, we have successfully evacuated not only our own citizens but citizens of our neighbouring countries like Sri Lanka, who don’t have such capacity. So, Instead of privatizing important Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs), the government should give them more freedom to take appropriate decision to compete in the market”, he had said during his Odisha visit last month.
The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Wednesday agreed to amend the existing FDI Policy to permit Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Air India by NRIs up to 100% under the automatic route.
