The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report on the Rafale jet fighter deal has concluded that the purchase of 36 aircraft through an Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) between France and the NDA government is 2.86 per cent cheaper than the earlier UPA-led negotiations for 126 planes.
The government has thus far variously claimed that the cost it negotiated was lower by 9 per cent to 20 per cent than was being negotiated by the UPA for 126 jets.
The CAG, however, put the Defence Ministry in the dock for price escalation and non-inclusion of a bank guarantee clause in the IGA, an anomaly that was flagged by technical and financial experts on the Indian Negotiating Team (INT) and reported by The Hindu .
The report on capital acquisition in the Indian Air Force, tabled in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, drew criticism from opposition leaders, particularly Congress President Rahul Gandhi, who said an audit that does not factor in the technical and financial evaluations of the deal and the objections raised by INT members is “not worth the paper it is printed on”.
