AAI has incurred a loss of Rs 58 cr: CAG

A loss of Rs 58 crore has been incurred by the Airports Authority of India (AAI), as Delhi airport operator DIAL failed to include utilisation of customs duty scrip as income, government auditor CAG has found.

The Comptroller and Auditor's General (CAG) said Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) had utilised Rs 91.38 crore worth of Custom duty scrip (CDS) for the financial year 2011-12 as income and not shared revenue earned on account of electricity charges. However, it did not account for it while measuring the value of fixed assets, it said in a report tabled in Parliament.

"This deprived of the AAI from getting 45.99 per cent share (according to operation, maintenance and development agreement between AAI and DIAL) of the above revenue, which worked out to Rs 42.23 crore (45.99 per cent of Rs 91.83 crore)," the CAG said, adding AAI also sustained a loss of Rs 9.84 crore (up to January 2013) towards interest on the above amount. It said DIAL's statutory auditors also pointed out the airport operator should have recorded the CDS amount for payment of duty on imports as income for the financial years ending on March 2011 and March 2012.

DIAL was entitled to CDS under Served From India Scheme (SFIS), under which service providers are entitled to duty credit scrip as a percentage of foreign exchange earned by them that can be utilised for payment of import duty in case of imports.

CAG also said DIAL was collecting Rs 9.66 per unit in case of low tension electricity connection and Rs 6.91 per unit for high tension connection from concessionaires as electricity charges. But the supplier, BSES Limited was charging Rs 6.47 per unit for both type of connections.