NEW DELHI, MARCH 17:
The presentation of the Union Budget and the completion of the Budget exercise could pave the way for Kingfisher Airlines to work towards getting back to full operations.
This is because the "lock down" in the Finance Ministry made it difficult for the airline Chairman and Member of Parliament, Mr Vijay Mallya, to meet with senior Finance Ministry officials and get his airline's financial troubles sorted out.
This was one of the messages that Mr Mallya gave his employees at a meeting here on Thursday evening.
FROZEN ACCOUNTS
The other clear message that Mr Mallya gave the employees was that their salaries will not be paid till the airline's accounts were unfrozen.
Holding the frozen accounts responsible for the state that the airline is in, a "humble" and "patient" Mr Mallya told his employees that the industry had great potential to do well. Reading from a voluminous document prepared by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, and another one from the International Air Transport Association, Mr Mallya told the 80-odd employees of Kingfisher Airlines that taxes were killing the sector.
The Chairman answered most of the questions raised during the close to three hour long interaction turning to the airline's Chief Executive Officer, Mr Sanjay Aggarwal, only once to check on when aircraft will be inducted in the fleet.
Taking partial blame for the current situation that the airline is in, Mr Mallya said that Kingfisher had proposed repaying dues to the authorities over 20 months rather than the 18 months sought by the authorities.
However, eventually, the authorities are believed to have told the airline that the dues had to be repaid in 12 months.
Inability to find a common ground had deteriorated the situation for the airline.
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