PRESS RELEASE Feb. 09, 2018

Transcription

1 PRESS RELEASE Feb. 09, 2018 Statement issued by Randeep Singh Surjewala, AICC Media Incharge; Prof. Rajeev Gowda, MP and Shri Pramod Tewari, MP As Modi Government stumbles & fumbles; hides & conceals; sacrifices National interest & refuses to answer on loss to public exchequer; India demands answers Q.1 What is the price per aircraft of the 36 Rafale Aircrafts being purchased by Modi Government? Did the Defence Minister, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman not agree to share the price of Rafale Aircrafts in a press conference in Raksha Bhawan on 17 th November, 2017? Why are Prime Minister, Defence Minister and Finance Minister hiding the purchase price? Q.2 On 5 th February, 2018; Defence Minister refuses to disclose the price of Rafale Aircrafts on the ground of secrecy agreement that presumably came to end on 24 th January, On 8 th February, 2018; Finance Minister refuses to disclose the price on the ground of National security. Isn t a full disclosure of price of Rafale Aircrafts in National interest? Why are the two Ministers of the Government speaking in two different voices? Who are they trying to shield? Why is the price of Aircrafts shrouded in secrecy and cover up? Q.3 Is it correct that per aircraft price of Rafale as per International bid opened on December 12, 2012 comes to US$ million (Rs crore) as against Modi Government s per aircraft negotiated price of US$ Million (Rs crore) as per current exchange rates? Has another country Qatar purchased 12 Rafale Fighter Jets in November, 2017 for US$ million per aircraft (Rs crore) as per current exchange rates? If this is correct, why has Modi Government paid such astronomically higher price for Rafale Aircrafts? Q.4 Rafale and Eurofighter Typhoon, both Aircrafts were found equal on all technical requirements by Indian Air Force. Is it not correct that on 4 th July, 2014; Eurofighter Typhoon gave a written offer to the then Finance Minister, Shri Arun Jaitley offering to reduce prices by 20%? Why did PM Modi and Defence Minister then not ask both the companies to submit fresh bids through inter-governmental agreement route so as to get the lowest price in favour of India s public exchequer? Q.5 Why was no prior permission of Cabinet Committee on Security taken by PM Modi? Why was Defence Procurement Procedure violated with impunity? Why are Prime Minister, Defence Minister and Finance Minister completely silent on this issue? Q.6 Why was the Government PSU HAL superseded for a 30,000 crore offset contract in favour of a private company despite the fact that HAL had already signed a work share agreement on 13 th March, 2014 with Dassault Aviation? Copies of Parliamentary Questions/PIB Press Release, wherein information qua purchase price of aircraft/aircraft engine/aircraft carrier was disclosed during UPA on the Floor of the Parliament are enclosed herewith.

2

3 GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF DEFENCE LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO: 2822 ANSWERED ON: AIRCRAFT CARRIER ADMIRAL GORSHKOV MANISH TEWARI (a)the initial price that was arrived at between India and Russia for the purchase and sale respectively of the aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov; (b)the number of times since the arrival at the initially negotiated price there has been an escalation in the price of the aircraft carrier; (c)the final price of the Admiral Gorshkov that the Government would have to pay; (d)whether even after the cost escalations that have taken place there is still a price escalation clause in the contract re-negotiated between the two countries; (e)the original delivery schedule of Admiral Gorshkov alongwith the amended delivery schedule of the aircraft carrier; (f)the time by which it would be inducted into the Indian Navy; (g)whether any responsibility has been fixed on those responsible for this cost escalation and delay; and (h)if so, the details thereof? Will the Minister of DEFENCEbe pleased to state:- ANSWER

4 MINISTER OF DEFENCE(SHRI A.K. ANTONY) (a) to (h):a statement is attached. STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (h) OF LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO FOR ANSWER ON Contracts and supplementary agreements comprising repair and re-equipping, logistic supports, training, et cetera were concluded with the Russian side for acquisition of the aircraft carrier, ex- Admiral Gorshkov, in January 2004 at a cost of US Dollars 974 million. The Russian side submitted a revised Master Schedule indicating a delay in the project and an increase in price for repair and re-equipping of the aircraft carrier, due to increase in scope of work not originally envisaged. The Government approved the proposal for conducting negotiations with the Russian side for finalizing a revised Repair and Re-equipping Contract and other related contracts/agreements affected due to delay in the project and Additional Works projected. The negotiations have since been concluded by the Contract Negotiation Committee(CNC). The revised cost of USD 2330 million has been approved by the Government. Prices for the works to be carried out under the revised contracts/agreements are fixed. The aircraft carrier was originally scheduled to be delivered in August The ship s delivery is re-scheduled to December, Re-scheduling of the ship s delivery and revision in its cost were necessitated due to emergence of Additional Works projected, detailed agreed scope of trials, et cetera.

5 GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF DEFENCE LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO: 941 ANSWERED ON: UPGRADATION OF AIRCRAFT KALIKESH NARAYAN SINGH DEO (a)whether the cost of upgrades is included in the Life Cycle cost method of evaluation; (b)whether there is a mechanism in place to ensure that the vendor does not arbitrarily quote a huge amount at the time of upgrade and if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor; and (c)the details of percentage of initial acquisition cost at which the contract for the Mirage Upgrade Programme was signed? Will the Minister of DEFENCEbe pleased to state:- ANSWER MINISTER OF DEFENCE (SHRI A.K. ANTONY) (a) & (b):the need to upgrade is driven by the changes in the operational requirements, changes in technology and will apply equally to all vendors. The Total Acquisition Cost model being followed by Ministry of Defence does not include upgrade costs as these are not predictable, quantifiable and verifiable at the time of making the procurement decision. In any case, major upgrade decisions are taken in a competitive environment and suitably negotiated, as and when the requirement arises. (c) The last contracted price for each Mirage-2000 aircraft in the year 2000 was `133 crore. The contract for the upgrade was signed in 2011, wherein, the cost of upgrading one aircraft was `167 crore. Applying an escalation of 3.5% per annum as per the Pricing Policy Review Committee (PPRC), to the contracted cost of the year 2000, it works out to be `195 crore at 2011 levels. Thus, the upgrade has been undertaken at 85% of the escalated cost of the aircraft. However, this upgrade programme also includes fitment of advanced multimode-multi-target radar, reconfigured glass cockpit and advance avionics, state-of-the-art Electronic Warfare system and capability to launch advanced missiles.

6 GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF DEFENCE LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO: 2318 ANSWERED ON: PROCUREMENT OF SUKHOI AIRCRAFT ASADUDDIN OWAISI (a)whether the Cabinet Committee on Security has cleared the proposal for purchase of 42 Sukhoi-30 MKI fighter aircraft from Russia; (b)if so, the details thereof, the total cost involved therein and the delivery schedule of the aircraft; (c)whether due tendering process was held for procurement of these aircraft; (d)if so, the details thereof; (e)whether the aircraft are proposed to be produced indigenously under the agreement; and (f)if so, the details thereof? Will the Minister of DEFENCEbe pleased to state:- ANSWER MINISTER OF DEFENCE(SHRI A.K. ANTONY) (a) & (b):the Defence Acquisition Council has accepted a proposal for the procurement of 42 Sukhoi-30 MKI aircraft from M/s Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, India.The proposal is being further progressed for submitting to the Cabinet Committee on Security. The estimated cost of the project is Rs crores and the aircraft is planned to be delivered during (c) to (f):the proposal is being progressed as a repeat order from M/s Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, India under the Defence Procurement Procedure-2008.

7 PRESS INFORMATION BUREAU (DEFENCE WING) GOVERNMENT OF INDIA KAVERI ENGINE DEVELOPMENT PROJECT New Delhi: Phalguna 04, 1932 February 23, 2011 So far, nine prototypes of Kaveri engines and 4 prototypes of Kaveri Core (Kabini) engines have been developed. About 1975 hours of testing has been conducted on Kaveri and its Core engines at ground and altitude conditions. Kaveri engine prototype (K9) has been integrated with IL-76 Aircraft at Gromov Flight Research Institute, Russia. After adequate Engine Ground Runs, taxi trials, the maiden flight test of Kaveri engine with IL- 76 Aircraft for over one hour has been successfully completed on 3rd November 2010 followed by 3 more flight tests. These flight tests covered 6 Km altitude and a speed of 0.6 mach. Kaveri engine development project was sanctioned on 30th March 1989 with a Probable Date of Completion (PDC) of December 1996 and a cost of Rs crore. The project cost was revised to Rs crore. Some of the major reasons for time and cost overruns are ab-initio development of engine, lack of skilled manpower in engine manufacturing, enhancement in the scope of project during

8 development, lack of infrastructure for engine manufacture testing and component/system level testing within the country, Flying Test Bed (FTB) trials was not originally included as a milestone in the project, engine and component failure during testing which is inevitable in this kind of projects resulted in changes in design and material, based on various reviews, less priority from foreign manufacturing agencies in view of Minimum Order Quantity (MOQ) vis-a-vis the production order quantity from other engine houses and US sanctions imposed during 1998 affected the delivery of critical systems and components. It is proposed to develop production version Kaveri (K10) engine on codesign & co-development basis with M/s Snecma, France. The technical evaluation for this proposal has been completed. Tender Purchase Committee (TPC) with members from DRDO, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), Indian Air Force (IAF), Indian Navy (IN) and Integrated Finance (R&D) is negotiating the commercial aspects. This information was given by Defence Minister Shri AK Antony in written reply to Shri Shri N K Singh in Rajya Sabha today ******