NDA's Rafale deal 2.86 per cent cheaper than UPA, fly away price same: CAG report

NEW DELHI: The Comptroller and Auditor General in its report on Rafale deal said that the fighter aircraft under the Narendra Modi government is 2.86 per cent cheaper than the deal negotiated by the previous UPA government. The CAG report also states that the fly away price of the aircraft deal negotiated by both the governments is the same.

CAG said that compared to the 126 aircraft deal negotiated by the UPA government, India managed to save 17.08 per cent for India-Specific Enhancements in the 36 Rafale contract of the Modi government.

The CAG said that vendor response to the solicitation of offers was low, which restricted competition. It also added that the objectivity, equity and consistency of technical evaluation process was not evident in the technical evaluation report.

It also said that it created difficulties during technical and price evaluation which affected the integrity of competitive tendering.

In the audit note, the delay in acquisition process has been blamed on the Indian Air Force which reportedly did not define the Air Staff Qualitative Requirements (ASQR) properly due to which none of the vendors could fully meet the ASQRs. ASQRs were also changed repeatedly during the procurement process, the report adds.

The report states that the schedule of the first 18 Rafale aircraft is better than the one proposed in the 126 aircraft deal, by five months. 

The CAG report was tabled in Rajya Sabha on the last day of the Budget session on Wednesday.