Government paid ₹1100 crore more per Rafale: Rahul Gandhi

Cong. chief flags Army’s plea for funds

A file picture of a Rafale fighter plane.

After repeatedly asking the NDA government to reveal the actual price of the Rafale fighter aircraft deal, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday put forward figures and claimed the Modi government paid ₹36,000 crore more than what the UPA had agreed to.

He said the amount was equivalent to 10% of India’s defence budget.

Tagging an annual report of the French plane maker, Dassault Aviation, which manufactures the Rafale, Mr. Gandhi tweeted that government of India paid ₹1670 crore per aircraft that is almost ₹1100 crore higher than UPA’s price of ₹570 crore.

“Dassault called RM’s lie and released prices paid per RAFALE plane in report: Qatar = 1319 Cr, MODI = 1670 Cr, MMS = 570 Cr,” Mr. Gandhi tweeted.

10% of defence budget

Mr. Gandhi also argued that India paid ‘extra’ at a time when the armed forces are facing a resource crunch. “1100 Cr per plane or 36,000 Cr i.e 10% of our Defence budget, in the pocket. Meanwhile, our Army begs our Govt. for money,” said the Congress chief.

While the government has refused to reveal the exact price of the deal, in November 2016, Minister of State for Defence Subash Bhambre in a written reply had mentioned the approximate price of each fighter jet as ₹670 crore.

Since then the government changed its stand on quoting the price of each Rafale, citing protection of classified information.