According to media reports, Tata Sons will resume control of Air India after bidding $2.4 billion, including equity and debt, marking the end of years of struggle to privatise the financially troubled airline.

“A successful sale of the loss-making national flag carrier will be a major victory for Prime Minister Narendra Modi as it had cost taxpayers an average of nearly $3 million a day for the past decade. It would also bode well for planned stake sales in a slew of state-run firms to bolster government coffers and make India a fully market-driven economy,” according to the news report.

It is important to note that our own national flag carrier, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), has been inflicting a massive loss on the national exchequer for years. Unfortunately, there has been no political will on the part of successive governments to privatise this white elephant. Why can’t it be privatised? There has been a lot of talk about the planned sell-off of Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM), another white elephant. But there’s very little progress in this regard.

Mohsin Wattoo (Lahore)

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021