Kingfisher owes Rs 9.5 bn to oil cos: Deora

Reuters Posted: Jul 20, 2009 at 1251 hrs
New Delhi Kingfisher Airlines owes a total of Rs 9.5 billion to three state-run oil marketing firms as on May 31, the oil minister said on Monday.

But the government has not made any move to encash bank guarantees to Kingfisher to recover the dues, Murli Deora said in a written reply to a question in Parliament.

The carrier owns Rs 5.99 billion to Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd, Rs 3.14 billion to Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd and Rs 373.6 million to Indian Oil Corp, Deora said.

The dues of Kingfisher, as of other airlines, had started accumulating from the current fiscal year, when jet fuel prices soared on record high crude oil prices, he said.