HAL chairman likely to brief Defence Minister on financial issues on Wednesday

Amid the ongoing row over orders given to Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), its chairman R Madhavan is expected to meet Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday at her South Block office. During the meeting, Madhavan is likely to brief her about the financial issues related to HAL.

"The HAL Chairman is likely to meet the Defence Minister along with other Director (Finance) Ananth Krishnan tomorrow (Wednesday) and brief her about the financial issues his organisation is facing," the Defence Ministry officials said on Tuesday.

The financial issues of the HAL, which had to borrow about Rs 962 crore for paying salaries to employees, were also discussed in the board meeting held on Tuesday in Bengaluru.

The board meeting of HAL took place at a time when Congress president Rahul Gandhi attacked Sitharaman for "lying" in the Parliament about placing orders of Rs 1 lakh crore to the PSU, which has been refuted by her.

In the wake of the war of words between Rahul and Sitharaman, the HAL had clarified that it had taken an overdraft of Rs 962 crore but with orders for 83 light combat aircraft, 15 light combat helicopters and other products, and its finances are expected to improve.

HAL issued the clarification after media reports quoting its chairman suggested that the firm was forced to borrow money to pay salaries to its employees.