He also announced that the Kelkar committee, appointed to look into steps for turning around Air India (AI), would submit its report within a few months. Asked why AI discontinued its flights to South Africa, Kumar said the step had been taken as the airliner had incurred losses of Rs 12.7 crore during 1995-96 and Rs 20.22 crore during 1996-97 in the route.

IA disinvestment: The government proposes to restructure the capital of Indian Airlines and undertake a phased disinvestment in the company over three years to bring down government equity to 49 per cent Ananth Kumar told Rahasbhihar Barik in a written reply that as a share holder, the government wouldcontinue to discharge its role as per the memorandum and articles of association duly approved by the competent authority.

Aircraft leasing: Civil aviation ministry has banned leasing aircraft by domestic airline companies from any foreign airline or its subsidiary. Replying to a written question Kumar said guidelines in this regard have been issued on July 17, and aircraft leased by Jet Airways and other operators not conforming to these guidelines cannot operate in the domestic sector.

Rupee depreciation: The value of the rupee against the US dollar depreciated by over Rs 5 between November last and July this year, finance minister Yashwant Sinha said. However, long-term measures like fostering macro-economic stability, pursuit of rapid growth of output and productivity and management of capital flows consistent with the country's need of external financing have helped maintain rupee stability, he said.

External debt: In reply to another question, he said the country's externaldebt as on September last stood at $92.88 billion. The amount of market loans at the end of 1997-98 (revised estimates) stood at Rs 2,17,501 crore and the gross market borrowings of the central government through dated securities during the current financial year till July 4 stood at Rs 40,530 crore, Sinha said.

Prasar Bharati: The government denied any hand in the day-to-day functioning of Prasar Bharati which came in for criticism in Rajya Sabha with members accusing All India Radio and Doordarshan of bias in their news coverage. Replying to supplementaries, information and broadcasting minister Sushma Swaraj said her office had received several complaints from various political parties on news coverage which had been passed on to the Prasar Bharati for due consideration.

Currency notes: The government has taken a policy decision not to print currency notes with any portrait other than that of the father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi, Sinha told the House. He stated this in a written replyto a question on whether the government proposed to print Rs 1000 denomination notes bearing the portrait of Dr. BR Ambedkar. The proposed note of Rs 1000 will also have the portrait of only Mahatma Gandhi, he said.

No plans to import sugar to meet PDS demand

The government has not taken any decision for importing sugar to meet the shortage of the commodity for the Public Distribution System (PDS), the Lok Sabha was informed.

To meet the shortage, government has decided to purchase up to 12 lakh tonnes of free-sale sugar from domestic mills under a transparent formula depending upon requirement, minister of state for food and consumer affairs Satya Pal Singh Yadav said in a written reply. Stating that the existing procedure for making sugar available to consumer through PDS would be followed, he said no estimate had been made on the quantum of subsidy for sugar supply through PDS.

He said the sugar industry had asked the government not to import sugar for PDS as the commodity was available inplenty in the domestic market and any shortfall could be made good by the government by purchasing free-sale sugar from the mills.