NEW DELHI, Oct 30: The Government has revised the terms of sale of Air India to facilitate the disposal of the white elephant as early as possible. Draining the people's money for the luxury of some, the airline has accumulated debts that is too huge to liquidate. Now the Government is offering to sell it at its enterprise value. The deadline for bidding has also been changed.

Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Puri said on Thursday that the earlier terms of sale of the distressed national carrier have been given up for a more flexible deal to expedite its discharge.

Now the investor who quotes the highest enterprise value gets the carrier. The plan is to make the offer as market-linked as possible. “After detailed preparations, we revisited this (earlier offer for sale) and it was decided to change the bidding parameters and ask for bids at the enterprise value that is, bids will be invited on equity and debt basis," Puri said.

The Government had earlier said that any bidder would have to absorb the debt of Rs 230 billion against a total of Rs330 billion. Now the change means bidders will set the amount of debt that they can absorb, the Minister told a press conference on Thursday.

Of the enterprise value quoted by bidders, 15% will be given in cash to the Government and the remaining 85% will be taken on by the bidder as debt. This gives more leverage to bidders for participation in the process, Puri posted on Twitter.

The expressions of interest will now be sought up to 17:00 on 14 December and the Government will inform qualified interested bidders by 17:00 on 28 December, according to a notification issued by the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management. This is the ninth change.

In its first attempt to sell in 2017, the offer was of 76% stake in 2017. In second and current attempt starting early this year, the offer was of 100% stake alonwith other attractions. The deadline was changed several times this year.