Jet Airways [Get Quote] chairman Naresh Goyal met Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Monday to seek tax concessions on aviation turbine fuel as part of measures to overcome the crisis that has hit the Indian civil aviation sector.

According to sources, Goyal met Chidambaram at North Block this morning and drew attention of the finance minister to the problems that airlines in the country were facing.

Goyal is understood to have asked Chidambaram to consider the demand of airlines to rationalise taxation and levies on ATF, which has become one of the biggest issues of carriers in India.

Jet Airways alone had a total outstanding fuel bill of Rs 859 crore (Rs 8.59 billion), of which it had defaulted on payment of bills which were due on September 25 and October 5.

Similarly, Kingfisher owed Rs 110 crore (Rs 1.1 billion) to IOC, of which Rs 60 crore (Rs 600 million) remained unpaid after expiry of the credit period. 

National Aviation Company Ltd, the holding company of Air India, has an outstanding of Rs 606 crore (Rs 6.06 billion) as on October 8 and has a monthly fuel bill of Rs 337 crore (Rs 3.37 billion).

Goyal's meeting with Chidambaram also comes days after the former had decided to reinstate 1,900 sacked employees.

Jet and Kingfisher had recently entered into an alliance seeking synergies in operations as they try to cut costs together.

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