By
Nitya Chakraborty
The Narendra Modi government has saved
the French company Dassault from a serious financial crisis in 2016 by giving
orders for 36 Rafale jets at the cost of sacrificing the viability of its own
public sector enterprise Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd(HAL) by denying its offset partnership,
according to the American publication Defence News.
The US publication points out that the
controversial Rafale deal by the French company with India has played a
significant role in turning around Dassault’s fortunes but that has cost the Indian
company heavily in terms of its finances, but still India’s top defence
manufacturer HAL ranks higher than Dassault in terms of defence revenue and
overall presence in the global defence market in 2017.
As per the survey, among the world’s
top 100 defence companies in 2018, HAL ranks 38 while Dassault Aviation ranks
44. But the French company’s previous position was 51 and it could improve its
position with the help of big orders from India while HAL ranking went down to
38 from 35 for the same reason .A foreign company was allowed to come out of
crisis by the Modi Government by landing the country’s own blue chip company
into a financial crisis by helping an inexperienced private company with offset
partnership instead of the public sector HAL with decades of experience.
The US publication based the rankings
on defence revenue that is sales, that supports military, intelligence and
aspects of homeland security. HAL’s defence revenue in 2017 was UD$ 2720
million- a fall of 8 per cent from the defence revenue in 2016 which was US$
2518.60 million. The HAL’s total revenue in 2017 was US$2830 million of which
whopping 96 per cent came from defence. So that way, the HAL is principally a
defence manufacturing company.
As against HAL, Dassault’s defence revenue
for 2017 was US$ 2124 million and this was up by 57 per cent from the figure of
2016 due to major contribution by the Modi government. In 2016, Modi government
placed the order for 36 rafale jets in fly away condition for Rs. 58,000 crore
and that gave a big boost to the fortunes of the crisis ridden Dassault in
2017.Egypt and Quatar also placed some orders on Dassault and all together, the
French Company revived its financial
viability in 2017.
Modi government’s anxiety to help
Dassault is evident from the fact that the Indian defence ministry has already
paid Dassault about Rs. 20,000 crore in three installments since 2016 for the
Rafale order whereas the Indian Air Force has not yet paid cash striven HAL Rs.
14,000 crore till now for the work that has already been done by the HAL.That
way, not only the HAL has been deprived of the offset orders by the Modi
Government for the Rafale jets, the Dassault has been granted much higher
prices compared to the original understanding and the payments have also been
facilitated on fast track to help the French company in distress ignoring the
financial distress of its own blue chip company.
The information emanating from the HAL
management sources gives firm indication that the this premier defence
manufacturing firm of the country is
facing serious financial viability problem as the Modi government is starving
it of orders which are scheduled as per the defence modernization programme of
the Government. Though the defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman has claimed in
Parliament that the defence ministry has
organized about Rs one lakh orders to HAL during the debate and
challenged the Congress President Rahul Gandhi on his statement that the HAL is
suffering for lack of orders from the Government, the facts are that only Rs. 26,000 crore of orders are
confirmed and the remaining Rs. 74,000 crore are at different stages of
evaluation in the Technical Evaluation
Committee of which , only a small
portion of these orders materialize. So that way, the defence minister has
given a distorted picture of the order position with the HAL and this is
confirmed by the reliable sources in the HAL as also defence experts.
Thus the Government is playing hide
and seek policy with the premier public sector company HAL and in the process,
the BJP leaders have done immense harm to the image of the HAL in the global
market and also the high standing of the public sector companies in India. At a
time when the defence minister herself says in public that the HAL is not competent
to build Rafale jets, what more harm can be done by its foreign competitors? The
irreparable damage that has been caused to the future of HAL by the Modi regime,
has no parallel.(IPA Service)
The post Modi Govt Saved Daasault From Financial Crisis Through Rafale Order appeared first on Newspack by India Press Agency.
