Airports Authority of India seeks exemption in annual dividend payment for the financial year 2021-22
Under the existing norms, AAI is required to pay an annual dividend of 5% of its net worth or 30% of its annual profit, whichever is higher.
Under the existing norms, AAI is required to pay an annual dividend of 5% of its net worth or 30% of its annual profit, whichever is higher.
The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has requested the government to waive the mandatory dividend payment requirement for the financial year ending March 2022, in lieu of waiver of Air India dues made prior to the sale of the carrier.
State-owned AAI, which is mainly in the red following the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, is expected to incur a loss of ₹800-900 crore in the 2021-22 financial year.
AAI President Sanjeev Kumar said it has acquired “good ground” and expects to reduce the losses in the last financial year. Financial results for 2021-22 will be finalized in the coming months. According to him, AAI had settled dues of around Rs 2,000 crore to Air India when it was owned by the government. Under the agreement 50% of the total dues were waived off.
AAI had received an amount of ₹1,000 crore as part of the settlement. Air India was acquired by Tata in the last financial year. “AAI has requested the government to waive off the mandatory dividend to be paid every year in lieu of waiving Air India’s dues. DIPAM (Department of Investment and Public Asset Management) has given us in-principle approval for the proposal ,” Mr Kumar told PTI in an interview.
Under the existing norms, AAI is required to pay an annual dividend of 5% of its net worth or 30% of its annual profit, whichever is higher.
Since the state-owned entity will be in the red, it will have to pay an amount equal to 5% of the net worth of the previous financial year. AAI has requested the government to waive off this dividend amount in lieu of waiver of dues of Air India owned by the government.
In 2019-20, which was also when AAI reported annual losses for the first time since its inception, it paid a dividend of Rs 671.70 crore to the government.
AAI has regained “good ground” and is expected to reduce its losses in 2021-22. “We expect a loss of ₹800-900 crore in the financial year 2021-22. The financial results will be finalized in the coming months,” Mr. Kumar said.
For the financial year ended March 2021, AAI had reported a loss of ₹1,962.06 crore, while the total revenue stood at ₹4,867.04 crore. It earned a profit after tax of ₹ 1,985.09 crore on a total revenue of ₹ 12,837.44 crore in 2019-20.
Mr Kumar said that for the current financial year ending March 31, 2023, AAI is expected to “reach at least 80% of pre-COVID levels in terms of financial performance”.
“AAI manages 137 airports including 80 domestic airports. It also provides air traffic management services to the entire Indian airspace and surrounding maritime areas with ground installations at all airports and 25 other locations to ensure the safety of aircraft operations.