The capital shortfall of the country's aviation regulator may swell to over Tk 10 billion at the end of the current fiscal year (FY) mainly due to a sharp rise in its overhead expenditures, officials said.
The shortfall of the Civil Aviation Authority, Bangladesh (CAAB) was Tk 6.02 billion in the last FY, they said.
"The deficit of CAAB will be reduced if we spend less on capital expenditure sector," CAAB member (finance) Mizanur Rahman told the FE on Sunday. The entity will face substantial liquidity crisis in near future if the national flag carrier and two other private airlines don't pay their outstanding dues to CAAB in time, sources concerned said.
Until June last, Biman owed more than Tk 14.47 billion to CAAB. The dues with United Airways and Regent Airways are more than Tk 1.22 billion and Tk 334 million respectively, according to a CAAB source.
But CAAB defaulted on payment of about Tk 7.0 billion as income tax until the FY 2014-15 which has to be paid in the current FY, he said. Nearly Tk 3.0 billion will also be paid as income tax, non-tax revenue and debt service liability (DSL) in the current FY, he added.
According to CAAB data, the authority expects to earn Tk 11.70 billion as revenue income in the FY 2015-16. On the other hand, revenue expenditure might stand at Tk 9.24 billion, data showed.
"Payment of income tax to the government, financing different development projects, maintenance and repairing activities of CAAB are being hampered due to delay in payment from the state-run airline and other domestic private airlines," a senior CAAB official said.
Presently, seven development projects taken up by CAAB involving Tk 15.22 billion are being implemented. Besides, CAAB plans to implement some more important projects in near future. This is why it is very important to realise outstanding dues from the airlines soon, he mentioned.
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