Petroleum Minister Murli Deora delivered a damning criticism on Thursday of Jet Airways' decision to sack employees, saying the timing of the decision was in bad taste.
"This is not the right time to retrench people, particularly before Diwali. . . I do not approve of such a move and you cannot just do such a thing," Petroleum Minister Murli Deora told reporters.
Petroleum Secretary R S Pandey separately pointed out that the airline had defaulted on payment of fuel bills to oil companies and owed them Rs 259 crore (Rs 2.59 billion).
The airline, which is battling to survive the downturn in the industry, has handed out the pink slip to 1,900 employees, mostly cabin crew - which it expected to result in savings of $1 million a month.
The airline has also struck an operational alliance with competitor Kingfisher Airlines.
Deora said he would 'appeal to (Jet chief Naresh) Goyal to please not resort to such extreme steps.'
Pandey said the airlines have to make clear their outstanding at the earliest as oil firms were as such losing heavily on sale of petrol, diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene.
"They will have to borrow (to clear the outstanding)," he said.
Deora said Jet Airways' decision to sack 1,900 employees was not in good spirit and he did not approve of it, while asking Goyal to 'please look for solutions.'
Pandey justified the present pricing structure of ATF saying the rates were fixed at imported price (import parity pricing) because around 80 per cent of the crude oil used to produce the fuel