Banks have Rs 40,000-cr debt on airline companies: FM

As many as 25 banks had debt of Rs 40,621 crore (Rs 406.21 billion) on airline companies until June 30 this year, Parliament was informed on Wednesday.

The debt was huge, considering that Rs 47,056 crore (Rs 470.56 billion) were given to the carriers since 2009-10 till the last day of June.

Banks have Rs 32,961 crore (Rs 329.61 billion) of securities against which loans were given, data given by Finance Minister P Chidambaram in the Lok Sabha showed.

. . .

Wherever, the advances are not covered by tangible security, exposure of these banks is secured by a charge on the cash flows of the airline companies, Chidambaram said.

Most of these are public sector banks, except for a few like YES Bank.

The country's largest lender, State Bank of India, disbursed the highest amount of Rs 5,121 crore (Rs 51.21 billion) in 2011-12, all of which were still due till June 30.

. . .

SBI had Rs 815 crore (Rs 8.15 billion) of securities against which loans were given.

Other banks which had large outstanding debt on airlines as on June 30, 2012 include Bank of India (Rs 4,614.54 crore or Rs 46.14 billion), Bank of Baroda (Rs 4,132.89 crore or Rs 41.32 billion) and Punjab National Bank (Rs 4,010.07 crore or Rs 40.10 billion).