CAG on Rafale deal: Jets are 2.86% cheaper compared with UPA price

Regarding the selection of offset partner, the government said that there is no mention of any private business house in the inter-governmental agreement | AFP Regarding the selection of offset partner, the government said that there is no mention of any private business house in the inter-governmental agreement | AFP

After generating massive political controversy, the Comptroller and Auditor General report on Rafale deal was tabled in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday. After being scheduled for Tuesday's meeting, it was postponed to Wednesday.

According to the report, the overall price of fighter jets is 2.86 per cent cheaper as compared to the UPA-era deal. It also says that when compared to the 126 aircraft deal, the 36 Rafale contract signed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi managed to save 17.08 per cent for the India Specific Enhancements. The report says that the delivery schedule for the first 18 aircraft is better by five months than the one proposed in the 126 aircraft deal negotiated by the UPA government.

Audit noted that the IAF did not define the ASQRs (Air Staff Qualitative Requirements) properly. As a result, none of the vendors could fully meet the ASQRs and these were changed repeatedly during the procurement process. This created difficulties during the technical and price evaluation and affected the integrity of competitive tendering, which is one of the main reasons for delay in the acquisition process. Objectivity, equity and consistency of technical evaluation process was not evident in the technical evaluation report, said ANI, quoting the CAG report.

The report also says that the defence ministry team, in March 2015, had recommended the scrapping of the 126 Rafale deal. The ministry had said that Dassault Aviation was not the lowest bidder and that the EADS (European Aeronautic Defence & Space Company) was not fully compliant with the tender requirements. Finding issues in the UPA-era 126 aircraft deal, CAG observed that the defence ministry had suggested in 2015 that the proposal of Dassault Aviation should have been rejected during the technical evaluation stage itself, as it was non-compliant with RFP requirements.

But it is to be noted that the most controversial point of pricing has been redacted under the claim that the details cannot be revealed.

The government's decision to buy 36 Rafale fighter jets from French company Dassault has become a controversial political issue, with the main opposition party Congress levelling allegations of corruption and impropriety, and the ruling dispensation defending the move.

Former minister and senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal on Sunday alleged conflict of interest and had asked the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) Rajiv Mehrishi to recuse himself from auditing the deal as he was the finance secretary when the deal was negotiated.

Union Minister Arun Jaitley, however, rebutted the claims of Sibal saying that the Congress was casting aspersions on the institution of CAG based on "falsehood".

(With inouts from PTI)