Govt denies signing of joint venture agreement for Rafale deal

New Delhi, March 12: The government on Monday denied any joint venture agreement (JVA) had been signed between public sector defence firm Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and Dassault Aviation under the MMRCA deal for 126 Rafale fighter jets from France. It also denied that the old deal cost India $10.2 billion, stating that it was never finalised.

In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Defence Subhash Bhamre said: "Due to the inability of the government to conclude negotiations and sign the contract, there was no such agreement between Dassault Aviation and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited or any other Public Sector Undertaking (PSU)."

He was replying to a question by Congress MP Vivek K. Tankha if a "JVA regarding Rafale Jet was signed between its developer, Dassault Aviation, and HAL, and was subsequently annulled".

The minister added that "the quantum of offsets in the Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) for 36 Rafale fighter jets is 50 per cent, which includes investments in terms of Transfer of Technology (ToT) for manufacture and maintenance of eligible products and services.