Demand to probe Jet IPO

The parliamentary standing committee on transport, tourism and culture has asked for a probe by an independent agency into the speedy clearance given by the government to Jet Airways to fly on international routes and the announcement of some key policy decisions at the time of the carrier's initial public offer.

"The committee feels that grant of speedy clearances to the company helped the airline get a good opening for its equity offering. The committee is, therefore, of the view that the conduct of the ministry of civil aviation in granting speedy clearance to the airline and the policy changes should be further enquired into by an independent agency," the committee said without naming the carrier in its report presented in Parliament on Friday.

However, the civil aviation ministry has contested the charge, saying the decision to fly on international routes was not taken to help the public offer of any particular airline.

"The decision to allow them to fly to SAARC countries was taken much earlier. The last government also considered this issue -- whether private airlines should fly or not. Due to some reasons that decision could not be taken, but the issue was alive. The point I was trying to submit before you was that this issue about enabling private airlines to go abroad was a matter which was under consideration for quite some time," Ajay Prasad, secretary, ministry of civil aviation, had told the committee.

Rejecting the government's stand on the issue, the report said the announcement of the decisions improved the company's IPO prospects.

It also said the policy adopted by the government and the clearances granted by the ministry to the company were too close to the public offer of the company to be termed as coincidence.

Drawing out the sequence of events, the report pointed out that the Cabinet decided on December 1, 2004 to allow some private carriers to fly on international routes and within a few days of this, the news regarding a particular airline bringing an IPO came out.

The Committee has also made the observation that the basic objective of the government in allowing private carriers to fly to international routes was providing connectivity on routes that the state-owned carriers are not able.

"However, the ministry of civil aviation has granted permission these private airlines to fly to those destinations which were already being serviced by Air India and Indian Airlines. Hence, the stated position of the government in this respect is in total contradiction with the actual decisions of the government and the basic objective of the government to provide connectivity to new international destinations has been defeated," the report said.