Govt will take call on Tata’s suggestion at the right time: Mahesh Sharma

Ratan Tata has accused older carriers of lobbying to retain the overseas flying rule.

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Dr Mahesh Sharma. (Express photo by Renuka Puri)

A day after chairman emeritus of Tata Sons, Ratan Tata, accused older airlines of lobbying to retain the rule permitting overseas flights by Indian carriers, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Mahesh Sharma on Monday welcomed Tata’s suggestion and said the government would take a call on such issues at the right time. “We salute him (Ratan Tata). As an Indian citizen, he has given a suggestion. We welcome his suggestion. We will try to take a call on his suggestion,” Sharma was quoted by PTI. “We as a government are here to address and take call on such issues which come from various stakeholders and well wishers. The government will take a call at the right time,” Sharma said.

Tata criticised incumbent airlines’ ‘lobbying’ for retaining the 5/20 rule, which requires an Indian carrier to have minimum five years operational experience and at least 20 planes to operate international flights, thereby, making new airlines ineligible for overseas flights.

AirAsia India and Vistara, two airlines operated by the Tatas through joint ventures, are currently ineligible to operate overseas as per the 5/20 rule. The Tata group chairman emeritus applauded the government for considering to remove this “controversial rule”.

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Scrapping 5/20 rule was one of the options suggested in the draft civil aviation policy released last year. Several older airlines including Jet Airways, IndiGo, SpiceJet and GoAir are vehemently opposing any move to scrap the 5/20 norm. In its inputs to the civil aviation ministry, lobby group Federation of Indian Airlines had opposed scrapping of the 5/20 rule, among other comments on the policy. The government is close to finalising the civil aviation policy. In a message posted on his Twitter account on Sunday, Tata said that established carriers were using “monopolistic pressures” to retain “preferential treatment” under the 5/20 rule.

“The lobbying for discriminating policies between old and new airlines is reminiscent of protectionist and monopolistic pressures by vested interests’ entities who seem to fear competition, as in a variety of other sectors over the years,” Tata said.

“One hopes when the new policy is introduced it will be free of discrimination and protectionism, so that Indian aviation can grow for the benefit of consumer and the common man — not to serve the interests of select beneficiaries of protectionism,” he said.

He said such protectionist moves have held back progress in India compared to open economies that have thrived on competition overseas.

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