Pawan Hans employee union asks aviation minister to lift ban on capex

An employee union of Pawan Hans Ltd has urged aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri to remove the ban imposed on capital expenditure for purchasing helicopters as the government has failed to secure a bidder in the last three years, a source has said.

The union, in a communication to Puri last week, has also sought a meeting with him, and has stated that the growth of a public sector undertaking (PSU) should not be hampered during its strategic sale process.

Pawan Hans Ltd is a joint venture with the government holding 51 per cent stake and oil and gas behemoth ONGC the rest 49 per cent.

The government has made at least three attempts to offload its entire stake under a strategic disinvestment plans since 2017.

"The disinvestment process got extended over three years now (is) adversely affecting the present operations and long-term strategic plans. The operational flexibilities have (also) been kept on hold or restriction enforced respectively.

"...During the process of strategic sale of any PSU growth path should not be hampered," the union said in the letter to the ministry.

The union also alleging that the disinvestment of the PSUs will create "more unemployment" in the country, it said due to long process of strategic sale since three years, performance of company is deteriorating which needs serious attention.

From a profit-making entity till 2018-18, PHL reported a net loss of Rs 63 crore in FY2018-19, which is expected to surge to Rs 100 crore in this fiscal, the source said.

Hence, the government should "immediately allow PHL for major capital expenditure/investment so that it can purchase the new aircraft and replace its old fleet as per the market requirement," it said.

PHL, which largely caters to ONGC's offshore flying requirements, has afleet of 43 helicopters and most of them are old.

"In view of the above the Union request to Minister for Civil Aviation to kindly spare some valuable time for meeting with us," the union said in the letter.