ED: TMC Paid ₹16.56 Lakh Per Hour for Embraer Legacy 600 Charter — 2.15 Times Carewell's Average Rate
Why It MattersThe case shows how charter billing scrutiny in political and regulatory probes increasingly turns on hour-by-hour rate comparisons against an operator's other clients rather than headline contract values.
What happened
The Enforcement Directorate has found that the Trinamool Congress paid an average of ₹16.56 lakh per flying hour for charter use of an Embraer Legacy 600 aircraft registered as VT-KOL, against an average of ₹7.68 lakh per hour that operator Carewell received from all other clients over the same four-year period, putting TMC's effective rate at approximately 2.15 times the market average. The gap was widest in 2026, when TMC paid an average of ₹28.04 lakh per flying hour while Carewell's average receipts from other clients were about ₹8.90 lakh per hour, a difference of more than three times.
ED's year-by-year breakdown shows TMC used the aircraft for about 12 hours in 2023 and paid ₹2.12 crore, or roughly ₹17.53 lakh per hour. In 2024, utilisation rose to about 82 hours with payments of ₹12.74 crore, approximately ₹15.50 lakh per hour. In 2025, TMC flew the aircraft for about 96 hours and paid a further ₹12.74 crore, around ₹13.27 lakh per hour. In 2026, usage fell to about 34 hours but payments were ₹9.56 crore, pushing the effective rate to approximately ₹28.04 lakh per hour.
Over the full four-year period, TMC's usage totalled approximately 224 hours and 27 minutes, for which Carewell received about ₹37.17 crore. The same aircraft was operated for all other clients for approximately 1,458 hours and 19 minutes, generating receipts of about ₹112 crore, an average of ₹7.68 lakh per flying hour. The ED said this rate comparison forms part of its examination of whether TMC's payments to Carewell were commensurate with actual aircraft utilisation and prevailing charter rates, alongside a review of TMC's simultaneous use of aircraft and helicopter services from other operators despite its long-term arrangement with Carewell, and the flow and utilisation of funds transferred by TMC to Carewell and related entities.
The probe originated from a first information report filed by the Bidhannagar Cyber Crime Police Station, followed by registration of an Enforcement Case Information Report under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. TMC has repeatedly denied the allegations, calling them politically motivated.
Industry impact & what to watch
Charter pricing for business jets is rarely a single published rate; it moves with contract length, aircraft availability, positioning costs and the relationship between operator and client, which is exactly why investigators here built their case around a per-hour comparison across one operator's full client base rather than a single invoice. That method turns an opaque bilateral arrangement into a benchmark: Carewell's ₹7.68 lakh average across roughly 1,458 hours for other clients becomes the yardstick against which TMC's ₹16.56 lakh average is measured.
The widening spread over four years, from about ₹17.53 lakh per hour in 2023 to ₹28.04 lakh in 2026 even as flight hours fell to around 34, is the detail likely to draw the most scrutiny, since a rising rate against falling utilisation is harder to explain through normal charter economics like fuel costs or fleet repositioning alone. Whether that pattern reflects contractual terms unrelated to usage, or something the ED considers irregular, is what the ongoing PMLA investigation will need to establish.
The next steps to watch are how the ED treats TMC's parallel use of other aircraft and helicopter operators alongside its Carewell arrangement, and what the examination of fund flows between TMC and Carewell's related entities ultimately concludes.
