Mumbai, Feb 22: A day after he called for saving the ailing Kingfisher Airlines, Corporate Affairs Minister Veerappa Moily today blamed bad governance and absence of professional management as the reasons for the perils of the carrier.
When sought his views on the current affairs at Kingfisher, Moily, without naming the airline, said the problems are due to “bad governance practices”, but as the corporate affairs minister he wants that company to survive.
“Why health of a company failed, because of bad governance. You must have a professional management. You cant' have individual decision-takers,” Moily told PTI.
“I want that company (Kingfisher) to survive....The government is always there but the major initiative should come from the person who has to provide that kind of atmosphere,” he said.
Moily was speaking at a corporate and investors meet organised by the Indian Merchants Chambers here. Moily had yesterday said, “as a corporate affairs minister, we want corporate bodies to build and come up and not wound up...Something has to be done. He (Mallya) has to work out a strategy...The entrepreneur has to take proactive measures so that is acceptable to banks and others”.
Kingfisher, which has an outstanding debt of over Rs 13,000 crore, including over Rs 6,000 crore of accumulated losses since the inception seven years ago, had requested a consortium of 18 lenders led by SBI for additional lending, but banks are seeking fresh equity infusion by the promoter.