As on December 31, 2008, the nation's largest domestic carrier Jet Airways, Vijay Mallaya-owned Kingfisher Airlines and National Aviation Co, which operates Air India and Indian Airlines, together owed Rs 3,607.85 crore (Rs 36.07 billion) as fuel payment.

Of this, Rs 1,366.39 crore (Rs 13.66 billion) was paid and the remaining Rs 2,241.46 crore (Rs 22.41 billion) was outstanding, he said in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha here.

Kingfisher has not paid Rs 744.92 crore (Rs 7.44 billion) to fuel retailers Indian Oil [Get Quote], Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum while Jet owed the three oil firms Rs 731.31 crore (Rs 7.31 billion). NACIL ran a total outstanding of Rs 765.23 crore (Rs 7.65 billion) as on December 31, 2008.

"The airlines have been informed that repeated defaults/delays in clearing their dues will constrain the oil marketing companies (IOC, BPCL [Get Quote] and HPCL [Get Quote]) to supply them the aviation turbine fuel (ATF) only on a cash and carry basis," he said.

Kingfisher Airlines owed HPCL Rs 523.45 crore (Rs 5.23 billion) and had paid only Rs 100.85 crore (Rs 1 billion) while it had paid only Rs 165.42 crore (Rs 1.65 billion) out of the Rs 333.96 crore (Rs 3.33 billion) outstanding it ran with BPCL.

Of the Rs 172.78 crore (Rs 1.72 billion) outstanding with IOC, it had cleared only Rs 19 crore (Rs 190 million) by December 31.