NEW DELHI: The cost of 36 Rafale jets, being procured from France, cannot be “directly compared” with the original proposal to buy 126 combat aircraft during the UPA Government as “deliverables” were significantly different in the two cases, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said today.
Replying to questions relating to the Rafale deal in Rajya Sabha, she also said that EADS, the consortium of four European aviation companies, had submitted “unsolicited offers on November 14, 2011 and July 5, 2014, after opening of the commercial bids for the procurement”.
The then UPA Government had floated a tender in 2007 for purchase of 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) for the Indian Air Force and, post negotiations, Dassault Aviation’s Rafale and and EADS’s Eurofighter Typhoon — remained in the reckoning. However, the deal could not be finalised by the UPA regime.
“M/s DA (Dassault Aviation) was determined as L1 (lowest bidder) based on Total Cost of Acquisition (TCA). The cost of 36 Rafale aircraft cannot be directly compared to the cost of original 126 MMRCA proposal as deliverables are significantly different,” Sitharaman said. (AGENCIES)
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