Jet Airways, the nation's largest private airline, saw its unpaid jet fuel bills rise by over 65 per cent to Rs. 849 crore in the first six months of the 2011-12 financial year, while the dues of Kingfisher Airlines grew by less than 4 per cent during the same period.
Jet Airways owed Rs. 849.15 crore in unpaid jet fuel bills to state-owned oil firms as of September 30, a 65 per cent from increase from a Rs. 514.68 crore outstanding as of March 31, 2011, Oil Minister S Jaipal Reddy told the Lok Sabha today in a written reply to a question.
In comparison, cash-strapped Kingfisher Airlines saw its outstanding rise by Rs. 24.21 crore to Rs. 636.79 crore in the first half of the current fiscal.
Kingfisher owes all of its outstanding dues to Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL), while Jet owed Indian Oil Corp (IOC) Rs. 695.90 crore and Rs. 153.24 crore to Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) as of September 30, 2011.
"The public sector oil marketing companies (OMCs) supply aviation turbine fuel (ATF) to private airlines as per mutually agreed commercial terms," he said.
"In case airlines fail to pay their dues, OMCs take action for recovery of dues in line with the mutually-agreed commercial terms," he added.
Defaulting airlines are also put on 'cash-and-carry' and interest is recovered on overdue payments, he said.
Kingfisher, which had an outstanding of Rs. 783.82 crore as of March 31, 2010, is on cash-and-carry.
Besides Jet Airways and Kingfisher, low-cost carrier Spice Jet owes Rs. 93.70 crore to IOC, while Go Airways had an outstanding debt of Rs. 1.41 crore payable to BPCL and another Rs. 39.05 crore to IOC as of September 30, 2011.
"OMCs encash bank guarantees and post-dated cheques for recovery of their outstanding dues," he said, adding that in some cases, oil firms even resort to legal means to recover their dues.
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