Jaitley slams Rahul for quoting varying prices

NEW DELHI: In a counter-offensive against Congress chief Rahul Gandhi ’s charge of corruption in the Rafale deal , finance minister Arun Jaitley said on Wednesday that Rahul’s claims on pricing and procedure were false and the NDA government got a better price for both the basic fighter and the weaponised version than what was being negotiated by UPA.Jaitley said the price quoted for the French fighter by Congress was under negotiation by UPA and never finalised and was for the basic aircraft.The claim that NDA’s price was three times as much incorrectly compared the basic aircraft with a fully weaponised fighter, which was misleading, he said.The minister asserted that NDA had got a better deal on pricing both for the basic fighter and for the aircraft with its weapons suite.He said if the 3% escalation cost — in UPA terms — and variation in foreign exchange values were taken into account, the basic fighter would have cost 9% more, as per UPA terms. He said even with the loaded version, the NDA deal was close to 20% cheaper than the price that was being negotiated by UPA.Can Rahul Gandhi deny that the UPA price mentioned in the 2007 L1 offer would be at least 20% costlier than the more favourable price negotiated by NDA?” Jaitley asked. Asking Rahul to respond to a set of 15 questions he posed, Jaitley said, “I would be constrained to come out with further specific facts which establish truth as a victim of Rahul Gandhi and his party merely peddling his falsehoods.”The minister said UPA had dragged its feet over concluding the contract for close to a decade and had, in fact, ordered a re-examination in 2012 which put the deal in cold storage at the cost of India’s defence preparedness.The minister attacked Rahul for quoting different prices for the aircraft when referring to the UPA negotiations on different occasions. In Delhi and Karnataka in April and May, respectively, he had spoken of Rs 700 crore per aircraft but reduced this to Rs 520 crore in Parliament. “In Raipur, he increased it to Rs 540 crore and in Jaipur he used two figures, Rs 520 crore and Rs 540 crore, in the same speech,” he said.Pointing to the price quoted by Congress for the terms being considered in 2007, Jaitley asked whether Rahul was aware of the escalation clause, which, by 2015, when NDA concluded the deal, would have further increased the price. “Is he aware that the basic price itself is 9% cheaper under NDA than it was in UPA?” he asked.The minister said the claim that the Cabinet Committee on Security was kept in the dark was incorrect as the panel approved the deal before it was concluded in 2015. “Can it be denied that both the price negotiation committee and the contract negotiation committee negotiated for 14 months and that the CCS approved the transaction before the deal was executed?” Jaitley asked.With India-specific adaptations and weaponry, the UPA price mentioned in the 2007 offer would work out costlier. In his statement, Jaitley addressed the allegation that industrialist Anil Ambani had benefited by a contract for offsets. “Can Rahul Gandhi deny that the government has no contract with any private industry in relation to the Rafale aircraft? Any private industry having benefited from the government is a complete lie,” he said.The minister said the UPA had itself shortlisted Rafale as technically acceptable in price competition and that the India-France contract for the supply of 36 fighters was on improved terms and the Congress president should show any proof if he had evidence to the contrary.