Kingfisher Airlines (IT) founder and chairman Vijay Mallya told employees Monday that he hopes to conclude negotiations by next week with investors/lenders who could provide much-needed new funding to the strapped carrier, which reportedly has grounded more than 75% of its fleet.
In a letter to IT workers quoted by The Times of India, Mallya called the media’s reporting of IT’s financial crisis "unscrupulous" and "sensationalist."
But he conceded that IT employees, who have not been paid since December, are "seriously overdue" to receive salaries and assured that he has "organized funding" to make payroll. He called the inability to pay workers “a source of great personal sorrow for me.” The Indian government has ruled out a bailout of IT.
Mallya said that IT is “currently handicapped as our bank accounts are frozen by the tax authorities ... I have been working tirelessly to urgently resolve this issue through negotiation and I hope that these efforts will be successful early next week. We fully intend to pay our tax dues as much as we commit to paying your salaries.”
Mallya said IT would get a boost from a plan, announced in January by the Indian civil aviation ministry, to allow foreign airlines to own up to 49% of Indian carriers . He encouraged the Indian government to make a "positive move" soon to formally ease foreign airline investment restrictions.
Article Source : ATW Daily News
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