There is no clarity on the stand taken by the PM on many issues plaguing the aviation sector
The central government says it has no record of a recent meeting on the country’s civil aviation policy, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and attended by some of his Cabinet colleagues. Replying to a Right to Information (RTI) Act query, the aviation ministry said the discussions were informal.
“It is informed that the meeting on August 25 was not a formal one and, therefore, there was no agenda nor were any minutes issued,” said the ministry’s reply, dated October 14.
Besides Modi, the meeting, held at the Prime Minister’s Office on August 25, was attended by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Road and Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju and Minister of State for Civil Aviation Mahesh Sharma. At the meeting, which reportedly went on for about three hours, civil aviation secretary R N Choubey gave a presentation on the draft civil aviation policy to the PM.
Earlier, it was decided a panel of secretaries, headed by Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha, would be formed to discuss the key issues on which there was no consensus. However, four months after the aviation ministry decided to “completely re-write” its previous civil aviation draft policy, it is yet to be released in the public domain.
“The issues discussed included regional connectivity, the 5/20 rule (an airline has to have five years of operations and at least 20 aircraft to fly on international routes), bilateral traffic rights, code-share agreement, maintenance, repair and overhaul service, route dispersal guidelines, fiscal issues affecting the aviation sector, Airports Authority of India, new projects, the helicopter policy, aeronautical ‘Make in India’ and ground handling,” the RTI response said.
An e-mail questionnaire sent to Choubey didn’t elicit any response.
This is the first time in recent history that the PM has chaired a meeting to discuss and finalise the country’s civil aviation policy. Also, a different exercise was adopted by the aviation ministry to frame the draft policy: It decided to hold inter-ministerial consultations before inviting public comments, against the practice of a draft policy being put in the public domain first, after which the government takes a stand on the comments and a draft Cabinet note is sent for inter-ministerial consultation. Typically, after calibrating all the views, the policy is sent to the Union Cabinet.
There is no clarity on the stand taken by the PM on many issues plaguing the aviation sector. For instance, on the norms to fly abroad, also known as the ‘5/20 rule’, Business Standard had reported that Modi had asked the aviation ministry to hold wider consultations.
The ministry, sources had said, would state all the four options available on the matter in the draft aviation policy - retaining the current norm, scrapping it, moving to a credit-based system linked to route dispersal guidelines, and allowing airlines to fly abroad immediately, on an assurance that they would attain the required credits.
The issue has divided the domestic aviation sector, with existing airlines opposing any move to scrap the existing norms and new players in favour of new norms.
A report in The Economic Times quoted an official as saying Modi had said at the meeting, “If the rule is stifling the growth of our carriers, it should be abolished, not replaced.”
Two days after the meeting, Mahesh Sharma had told reporters the PM had “shown concern” over “predatory pricing” of air tickets. Following a recent meeting on air ticket pricing with private carriers, the aviation ministry is yet to take a decision on capping fares.
According to a report in The Hindu Business Line, a consensus was evolved at the meeting to arrive at the impact of any proposal, before incorporating it in the policy.
At the meeting chaired by the PM, many decisions were reportedly arrived at. One of those was the levy of two per cent cess on air tickets to provide viability gap funding on regional routes. The PM is said to have approved the adoption of an ‘open sky’ policy by allowing airlines of a country either 5,000 km or seven hours of flying time away to operate any number of flights to India. A scheme to incentivise state governments to reduce tax on aviation fuel was also approved.
