Month: October 2018

Government’s move to de-escalate its stand-off with RBI is very positive, says former central bank governor Bimal Jalan

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Amid reports of its mounting tension with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the finance ministry on Wednesday said the government has “nurtured and respected” autonomy of the central bank and has been holding extensive consultations with it on many issues.

“The autonomy for the central bank, within the framework of the RBI Act, is an essential and accepted governance requirement. Government of India has nurtured and respected this,” it said in a statement.

The government has also for the first time ever used a provision of law to ask the RBI for resolution of differences between them on stressed loans in power sector and other issues, sources privy to the development said.

CNBC-TV18 spoke with Bimal Jalan, former RBI governor; Arvind Virmani, chairman, EGROW; Ananth Narayan, professor, SPJIMR; SS Mundra, former deputy governor, RBI and Yashwant Sinha, former union finance minister, on this issue.

Watch: RBI vs government: Here is what experts have to say

Jalan said the government seeking to de-escalate its stand-off with the RBI is a very positive and very welcome move, “What was going on for the last two three days was a matter of concern and that I hope now will start on a new path as it were.”

Narayan said, “Today’s communication was clearly welcome. The fact that we haven’t yet crossed the brink, we are still at a negotiating table in some sense is extremely welcome news and the markets obviously also welcomed it.”

Edited Excerpts:

You must have seen the letter. What are your first thoughts – do you think it’s a good end to what would have been ugly?

Jalan: It is very positive and very welcome. What was going on for the last two three days that was a matter of concern and that I hope now will start on a new path as it was.

Could both sides have deescalated it earlier- you have seen the RBI for 4-5 decades. Consultation under Section 7 is avoidable you thought?

Jalan: I don’t want to comment on the earlier differences which emerged. I won’t comment on who is wrong and right and so on. But the more important thing is there was a difference of views and that was aired in public, which was a matter of concern but now that the government has announced that everything is resolved in terms of two institutions talking to each other that is a very welcome step.

Any further comments on the prompt corrective action (PCA) into which weak banks were put. We are given to understand that MSMEs and SMEs need capital and government wanted those rules relaxed – any thoughts on this the RBI did not want weak banks to be allowed to lend to companies below A rating, was that the right way to go?

Jalan: I don’t want to comment on the right way to go. The only comment I can make is as far as SMEs are concerned and it is most important that they have accessible credit and we have to analyse the reason why there was a problem in terms of repayment and so on and then take a measure.

On the other issue any thoughts, the RBI’s capital – the central bank’s position I would assume would have been that this is retained earnings over many years and therefore should not be spent in one-year but the government would perhaps want to for capitalising banks or for other social purposes. Should the RBI’s capital be touched?

Jalan: I don’t think you should put it as capital being touched. I think it’s like any other institution, the RBI when it has a surplus cash or whatever they may transfer it to the government in terms of dividends as you have seen. It has capital, it has high reserves, so it can transfer to the government as it wishes in consultation with the government.

Do you think the problem is over and now the two sides will work constructively or do you think that it is only an escalation of an overt drama but the tug of war for capital will continue?

Virmani: I think it provides an opportunity. So it is more like an opening, like you said, but I am hopeful that it will be utilised. However, the question is how it is to be utilised and one needs to go back and think how things were done earlier.

As I mentioned yesterday, there are mechanisms which were evolved in government and in the RBI for dealing with contentious issues which have some technical basis. Obviously, if it is purely ego or purely something else, that has no solution. However, I do not think it is only that.

Let me make a general point. What I am saying is when there is some substantive basis, technical or professional basis, and I am not speaking by theory, I know of many such examples from the history where it is a question of attitude. If one side has only an ideological basis and the other has only a political, there is no solution.

That is what I mean by the general comment of stick to your views. However, there are many things which have a genuine technical disagreement and so the best way to do that is to set up a mechanism, a committee has often been used in the past where technical and professional people are heavily representatives but also has stakeholders who can speak and give their point of view.

However, there is no way – you will always get a confrontation if you take an ideological or political view but you can get solutions if you say okay there are these differences of approach and let us go into the technical issues and try to resolve them.

The government has said that it respects the autonomy and for the moment it looks like a de-escalation. But the issue still has two sides. Do you think this stand-off is over?

Narayan: Today’s communication was clearly welcome. The fact that we haven’t yet crossed the brink, we are still at a negotiating table in some sense is extremely welcome news and the markets obviously also welcomed it.

Couple of points to keep in mind one is the government statement does not mention that they have not taken use of section 7 so which means that remains un-denied. Also, the entire rumour about the governor putting in his papers or a change of guard at the RBI has not be denied. Now if your other news about the three letters to the RBI under section 7 is actually true it just tells you why Viral Acharya probably made that speech on Friday and the red lines have been drawn very clearly in that speech where they are saying effectively that they will not give way on any of the issues that you have mentioned including the use of reserves or PCA or forbearance on loan losses and so on so forth. Which means that the standoff in effect continues and somebody has to back off.

The point that Arvind Virmani was making which was that if you have an ideological position versus a political position there has to be a meeting around somewhere. One just hopes that given that we have an opening right now both sides sit down and hammer out a compromise of some kind because this kind of a confusion is something we can do without.

We have enough problems of our own. The world is also looking pretty uncertain. The last thing we want is investors globally questioning whether institutions in India works or not.

So the solution would be appointing a high powered committee and going into the issue of reserves, you think that would be a way out?

Narayan: Reserves is an involved topic. Irrespective of how strongly you feel about your point of view you have to understand that dipping into reserves is something which will raise eyebrows, which means it has to be kept above aboard. You have to have a public dialogue, allow academics, allow other practitioners, allow investors in the world to weigh in and offer suggestions on what really is the right way forward.

If you do it in a precipitated manner which looks like suspiciously trying to fill a fiscal deficit hole prior to elections you will raise the worst kind of suspicions in people’s mind. I mentioned yesterday as well I think there is merit in the argument that the RBI has excess reserves on its balance sheet. Having said that I don’t believe that should be an excuse for the RBI to actually monetise the fiscal deficit right now and pay a cheque to the government. It is an involved issue and such an involved issue cannot be decided in a precipitate manner without debate.

The other important issue of PCA, the statements we get from the government, well not quite on the record statement but off record statements, are that we were not consulted on PCA. What do you have to say on that? This is an RBI terrain, they make rules on classification of NPAs, would it even have occurred to them to consult the government?

Virmani: On reserves, I had said yesterday that there is a compromise solution which does not involve affecting negatively the market but actually could be positive and Professor Ananth Narayan also agreed with that.

On PCA, what I mean by an ideological position, we may all agree that this is the final goal, that should have been agreed like 5-20 years ago. However, in a situation where there is global uncertainty, one cannot insist that just because I have come to this conclusion today, everything must be done within the next one year. That is not how the real world works I am afraid. So when I say compromise, I am not saying compromise on the basic technical issues, but in making adjustments.

In having a transition, we all the time used to make compromises. That is how the real world works. So, again, let me be very clear, when you make a compromise, you are not compromising on fundamental, technical issues, but if there is a difference of technical opinion or if you are transitioning to something which may be ideally correct, you have to take account of the current circumstances.

We have been speaking about the reserves issue, on the PCA issue, the RBIs argument has been that they have had three thresholds, one on capital, one on net NPA going above 6 percent, and two consecutive years of negative RoA. The government’s position is all over the world you only have capital as a filter, and Indian banks have BASEL required capital and therefore the PCA is more rigorous than the rules followed globally. The RBIs position has been that net NPA becomes important because world over for an NPA you provide 100 percent in the first year, Indian banks provide only 15 percent. So they are undercapitalised and, therefore, we have to use net NPA as one of the filters. Do you see a meeting ground over here or just a continuation of the conflict?

Narayan: I tend to agree with Arvind Virmani again, I think there is a meeting ground possible. One thing which beats me is why does not the government just infuse capital as it has always indicated it will into the banks, particularly into the PCA banks? We had that old one year back plan for Rs 2.11 lakh crore infusion, that has not been completed.

If there is a shortfall beyond that for whatever reason, we know what the methodology which can be used is, infuse the capital, maybe increase the amount of provisions in the books of the PCA banks as well to some extent, and take a waiver of this two year return on assets requirement and move on.

The point is if you try and push the RBI and the regulator for forbearance at this point in time, you are not really fostering confidence in the banking system. If the regulator has made a stand and said I am not really comfortable with the capitalisation, bring the capital in, it is your bank after all, you know what the methodology is, you have the confidence, bring the capital in, initiate reforms under the PJ Nayak Committee recommendations and let us move on. I think there is a meeting ground absolutely possible.

Let me look at the same problem from another angle. Yesterday and this is on the record, the finance minister was blaming the RBI for the NPAs created from 2008 to 2014. We had a blistering credit growth and why didn’t the RBI stop it? I would assume the RBIs argument today would be  that part is not there in the public domain, the argument could be that those loans were lent recklessly and we are harvesting infrastructure NPAs. Now you are asking us to lend to SMEs and the future RBI Governor will be told those NPAs were created because you shut your eyes at that time and that is why today we are standing our ground. Yes, those NPAs were created but we are not going to allow future NPAs in the SME, MSME, power and other sectors. Even this does not look like any meeting ground to me, does it look to you?

Virmani: Professor Ananth Narayan and I are on the same page. Let me give you a specific suggestion. Exactly what he said, if the capital adequacy, if your argument is that 15 percent is too low, so say it has to be raised to 20 percent in six months, 25 percent next year or whatever. The question is do you want to solve the problem or do you want to create a crisis. Then you can get rid of the third thing. If the government is insisting, we do not want to have the third item, you play it within the first two.

What does it look like that the government was about to resign and it kind of prevented that stand-off by putting this press release, is that the way we have to understand it?

Mundra: At the outset let us be very clear and understand that we are discussing presently on a lot of assumptions. We are discussing on the assumption that three such letters were issued and we are also discussing on the assumption that it was perceived in the RBI that ultimately these letters will take the shape of direction and hence that given speech.

The letters are not an assumption and the letters referring to Section 7 are not an assumption?

Mundra: Is it a certain fact that letters were issued referring to or invoking the regulation 7 and if you say that letters were like that. I would like to explain that these are not new issues. These issues were in discussion for quite some time, last week one or other issue was under discussion.

So now, I am trying to build a scenario assuming that when that kind of discussions whether they were formal or informal they were not leading to a communication or discussion.

The essence of consultation is that you start a formal process of consultation and after that there can be three outcome: either you believe the stand of other party or your stand is accepted or things are not settled and the process of consultation may continue. These are the three possible outcome. What we are discussing today looks more likely the third situation.

So you think the RBI’s capital reserves will be handed over, part of it will be handed over, and you think that will be resolved?

Mundra: This will be too much of assumption to make. I am simply making a point that from the sequence of event, it looks to me that consultation has still not reached to a definitive state.

But still since consultations are one it can result into one of the two situation that either it is completely accepted, not accepted, partially accepted or it is also possible that they may decide to put few technical people to discuss on the issue and then look forward because presently whatever is the capital requirement of the RBI has come out of certain framework which was put in place. Now there could always be a possibility that the framework needs a review.

So one way it can be resolved is to have a technical committee which looks into the issue of capital. Is there a possibility that if the governor is not happy with say for instance relaxing the prompt corrective action rules, the board by majority asks him to do so? So it is not an instruction from the government – so a board majority may allow the government to have its own way? Will that be the things pan out?

Mundra: I think that is a very relevant point and if we slightly move away from the day to day happenings and exchange of communication, I think this is a great opportunity to look at some of the more fundamental or basic issues.

So, you have raised a valid point and the point I am trying to make is this RBI Act of 1935, the Act was enacted way back and at that point in time when the RBI came into existence and since then many developments have taken place.

I think what is very relevant and I have mentioned this earlier as well that probably it would be very relevant and meaningful to have a look at various provisions in the Act, the world has moved long distance from that and that can bring a lot of insight.

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Institutional buyers offer bids worth Rs 4,300 crore for Coal India shares

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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In the first big ticket disinvestment of the current fiscal Coal India share sale kicked off for a smooth sail on Wednesday as institutional investors put in bids worth Rs 4,300 crore and over-subscribed the shares reserved for them.

Of the 14.89 crore share on offer, institutional investors put in bids for 15.84 crore shares or 1.06 times the shares reserved for institutional buyers, as per data available with NSE.

Officials said the domestic mutual funds and insurance companies invested heavily in the offer for sale (OFS) on Wednesday, which was the first day of the two day share sale.

“Bids worth Rs 4,300 crore has been put by institutional buyers,” officials said.
The share sale will on Thursday open for retail investors, who would be offered a 5 per cent discount. These investors can bid for shares worth up to Rs 2 lakh.
The government is selling over 18.62 crore shares or 3 per cent in Coal India Ltd (CIL) at a floor price of Rs 266 apiece. If fully subscribed, it will fetch the government Rs 5,000 crore.

“A Rs 5,000 crore successful OFS in this volatile and subdued market will help in uplifting investor sentiment in broader market,” officials said.
Coal India scrip slipped to a low of Rs 263.80 apiece during intra-day trade. The scrip closed down 3.73 per cent over previous close on the BSE at Rs 265.60 — below the floor price of the OFS.

The BSE benchmark Sensex ended 550.92 points up at 34,442.
On top of the 3 percent stake sale, the government also has an option to retain an over-subscription of another 6 per cent stake in the CIL OFS.

If the additional 6 percent stake or 37.24 crore shares are put on the block, then the government could get a further about Rs 10,000 crore. Taken together, the 9 percent stake sale in CIL could fetch around Rs 15,000 crore to the government.

The floor price of Rs 266 a share was at a discount of nearly 4 percent or Rs 11 a share over Tuesday’s closing price of CIL scrip on the NSE.

The government had last sold 10 percent stake in CIL through an OFS in January 2015. It had then mopped up about Rs 23,000 crore.

The government currently holds 78.32 percent stake in Coal India.

It has already raised over Rs 10,028 crore through PSU stake sale, including by way of follow on offer of Bharat-22 ETF, and initial public offering of four PSUs — RITES, IRCON, Mishra Dhatu Nigam Ltd (MIDHANI) and Garden Reach Shipbuilders.

The stake sale in Coal India will help the government move forward towards the Rs 80,000 crore disinvestment target in current fiscal.

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Railways removes flexi fare scheme in 15 Shatabdi, Duronto trains

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Indian Railways on Wednesday removed flexi fare scheme from 15 premium trains including 13 Shatabdis and two Durontos, where the average monthly occupancy rate is less than 50 percent throughout the year.

Railways said it has rationalised the flexi fare scheme based on the recommendation of a 8-member review committee, Comptroller and Auditor General’s (CAG) report and representations from passengers.

The CAG had pulled up the railways in July for the flexi-fare scheme noting that the airfare for some of the routes were cheaper than the inflated train fares due to the dynamic pricing.

In its report for year ending March 2017, the CAG had stated that the introduction of the flexi-fare system in premium trains like Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto resulted in increase in passenger earnings in these trains, but there was a decline in the number of travellers.

Today, railways also said flexi fare scheme will be removed from 32 trains during the lean months of February, March and August. These are the trains where the average monthly occupancy rate varies from 50-75 percent and include trains such as Kalka Shatabdi, Ajmer Shatabdi, Mumbai Duronto, Rajdhani Express among others.

Making the announcement on micro-blogging platform Twitter, union railway minister Piyush Goyal said, “As a gift to passengers this festive season, railways has decided to reduce Flexi Fares from 1.5 to 1.4 times the base ticket fare, and to completely remove Flexi Fares from trains with less than 50% occupancy.”

“Win-Win Situation: The reduction of Flexi Fares is going to benefit both the passengers that can now avail tickets at cheaper rates, as well the Railways that will see a surge in demand and occupancy,” Goyal said in another tweet.

On September 9, 2016, the railways had introduced flexi-fare for premier trains: 44 Rajdhani, 52 Duronto and 46 Shatabdi Express trains.

Under this, the base fare increases by 10 percent with every 10 percent of berths sold, subject to a prescribed limit. There was no change in the existing fare for first AC and economy class.

Today, railways has also announced graded discount of 20 percent on last fare on all trains with flexi fare and Humsafar trains, where occupancy of a particular class is less than 60 percent, four days prior to scheduled departure of the train.

Further, for up to 70 percent occupancy, 20 percent discount on last fare and for 70-80 percent occupancy, 10 percent discount on last fare will be offered.

Changes will be implemented from advance reservation period on an experimental basis for six months to be further extended after assessing its outcome, railways said.

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Tata Motors reveals turnaround plan for Jaguar Land Rover after loss

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Tata Motors Ltd on Wednesday announced a turnaround plan for its luxury car unit Jaguar Land Rover which has been hit hard by trade tensions between China and the US, low demand for diesel cars in Europe and worries over Brexit.

Under “Project Charge” Tata Motors said it plans to cut costs and improve cash flows at Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) by 2.5 billion pounds ($3.2 billion) over 18 months.

JLR also plans to launch several new vehicles including the Jaguar I-Pace and the new Range Rover Defender over the next few years and will offer a hybrid or electric version of all its models by 2020.

“Together with our ongoing product offensive and calibrated investment plans, these efforts will lay the foundations for long-term sustainable growth,” JLR CEO Ralf Speth said after Tata Motors reported a loss for the second-quarter.

JLR has trimmed its pre-tax profit expectations for the current fiscal year ending March 31, 2019 and expects to break even, Speth said, versus an earlier target of profit growth.

As part of the turnaround plan, JLR will first focus on cash saving “quick wins” like reducing non-product investments and speeding up asset sales, Tata Motors said in an investor presentation.

In the near term it will improve efficiency in areas including purchasing and material cost, manufacturing and logistics and people and will focus on strategic and non-core asset sales. JLR has already reduced the number of production days at its UK plants in Castle Bromwich and Solihull.

The company said in its presentation it has saved 300 million pounds since it initiated the turnaround plan six weeks ago and is working on 500 ideas for the future.

Tata Motors made a loss of 10.49 billion rupees ($141.9 million) for the July-September quarter, compared with a profit of 24.83 billion rupees in the year-ago period. That was worse than the estimate of a loss of 2.40 billion rupees, according to Refinitiv data.

JLR reported a loss of 101 million pounds during the quarter and its margin on earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell 130 basis points to 9.9 percent.

Retail sales of its Jaguar saloons and Land Rover sport utility vehicles (SUVs) fell 13.2 percent to about 130,000 units, hurt particularly by tariff changes in China and escalating trade tensions.

Demand in China remained muted even after the country cut import tariffs for cars and car parts to 15 percent for most vehicles from 25 percent from July.

Tata Motors’ domestic business reported a profit of 1.09 billion rupees and EBITDA margin rose 210 basis points to 8.7 percent during the quarter from a year ago. The automaker incurred a one-off charge of 4.37 billion rupees due to the closure of operations at its Thailand-based subsidiary.

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Syndicate Bank Q2 net loss at Rs 1,543 crore on higher bad loan provisions

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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State-owned Syndicate Bank on Wednesday reported a net loss of Rs 1,542.54 crore in second quarter ended September 30, mainly due to rise in provisioning for bad loans. The bank had posted a net profit of Rs 105.24 crore in the same quarter of the previous fiscal.

Its net loss stood at Rs 1,281.77 crore in the first quarter this fiscal.

Total income of the bank also fell to Rs 5,888.87 crore for the reported quarter, as against Rs 6,419.21 crore in the same period a year ago, Syndicate Bank said in a regulatory filing.

The bank’s bad loans rose for the quarter with gross non-performing assets (NPAs) hitting 12.98 percent of the gross advances at September-end 2018 from 9.39 percent at the same time in 2017.

Net NPAs also rose to 6.83 per cent as against 5.76 per cent a year ago.

In value terms, the gross bad loans (or NPAs) stood at Rs 27,131.14 crore as on September 30, 2018 as against Rs 20,176.64 crore by end of September 2017. Net NPAs were at Rs 13,321.30 crore as against Rs 11,894.30 crore.

Thus, the provisions for bad loans during the quarter rose to Rs 1,622.46 crore in this fiscal from Rs 734.64 crore for the same quarter of 2017-18.

The overall provisions and contingencies was at Rs 2,217.26 crore for the quarter, up from Rs 891.16 crore a year ago.

Provision coverage ratio was at Rs 64.02 per cent as on September 30, 2018, the bank said.

Meanwhile, the board also approved increase in the limit to raise capital up to Rs 500 crore by issuing and allotting up to 30 crore equity shares to eligible employees under Employee Stock Purchase Scheme (ESPS), the bank said.

“This includes the earlier approval of the shareholders in the extra-ordinary general meeting held on October 29 to raise capital aggregating to Rs 250 crore by issuance and allotment of 9 crore equity shares,” it added.

Shares of Syndicate Bank closed 0.86 per cent down at Rs 34.75 apiece on BSE.

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IL&FS submits plan for revival to company tribunal

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The new board of India’s Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS) submitted a plan to revive the debt-laden firm to a company law tribunal on Wednesday, paving the way to a potential resolution of the group’s future.

The Indian government this month took control of IL&FS, a major infrastructure financing and development company, after it defaulted on some of its debt, triggering fears of contagion across India’s financial system.

“It is a dream and hope blueprint for revival,” Sanjay Shorey, Director for Legal Prosecution in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), told the tribunal.

The MCA is representing the government and the new board at the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).

“A universe of options are to be explored. There is no single strategy for revival,” Shorey said.

He said the new board of IL&FS was looking at three strategies: an outright sale of the entire IL&FS group, sales of its subsidiaries or assets.

The company later said in a statement after the tribunal hearing that the options could broadly involve significant capital infusion, divestments and debt restructuring at ILFS group, its subsidiaries and asset sales.

The IL&FS defaults have triggered sharp falls in Indian stock and debt markets amid fears of risk in the rest of the country’s financial sector.

Earlier in the day, both Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services and IL&FS Transportation Networks said they were unable to service their non-covertible debenture interest payments due on Oct. 30 and Oct. 31, respectively, due to insufficient funds.

The string of defaults by IL&FS led to a series of credit rating downgrades on the company to junk.

Shorey said the officials appointed by the new board have found discrepancies on how the previous board and management had conducted its business.

A preliminary analysis of the financial statements of IL&FS noted that outstanding loans of the company were in excess of the permissible limit set by India’s central bank, Shorey told the tribunal.

“The new board is unable to validate whether transparent process was used by the earlier board to monetise assets,” he added.

The NCLT told the MCA that the holding company will have to make all its 346 subsidiaries part of the resolution roadmap within 15 days.

The new board will follow due processes in the finalisation and implementation of the plans and expects to complete the process, in stages and parts, in the next six to nine months subject to market and economic conditions, IL&FS said.

The court will hear an update on the plans on Dec. 3.

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New owner of Air Deccan, Air Odisha plans to invest $10 million in the embattled carriers

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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As Air Deccan and Air Odisha grapple with turbulent times, their new owner and Sharjah-based NRI Zahid Hussein plans to invest $10 million initially as well as restructure the two airlines.

Currently, the two scheduled commuter airlines — which began services on 30 routes under the regional connectivity scheme — have suspended operations temporarily due to technical reasons, according to an official.

Hussein, who is a Director of Sharjah-based Ghalia Petrol LLC, said immediate fund infusion is required for the two airlines.

“We are a majority stakeholder in GSec Monarch Private Ltd, which owns Air Deccan and Air Odisha… The investment is through family-owned enterprises. An Indian company (is) investing into it,” he told PTI in an interview.

Both the airlines are scheduled commuter airlines under the government’s Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS). In the first round of RCS bidding, Air Deccan and Air Odisha bagged 34 and 50 routes, respectively.

“In the first phase, we are looking at an investment of around $10 million to clean up the slate and restart operations… We need fund infusion on an immediate basis,” Hussein said.

At current exchange rates, $10 million would be around Rs 74 crore.

This investment would be made over a period of around 90 days, probably by mid-January or February.

“In the short term, we are looking at restarting operations as soon as possible. We ourselves want the airlines to fly with a clear vision. We want to give a better experience,” he said.

Noting that both the airlines have their own set of liabilities, he said there would be restructuring and then reach a stable level before expanding their current aircraft fleet of 19-seater Beechcraft 1900 Ds.

Air Odisha has one aircraft and Air Deccan has three aircraft. All are on lease.

About future expansion plans for the airlines, Hussein said inducting ATR aircraft could be looked at in the second quarter of 2019.

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow