Rafael deal has to go through PAC, CAG; govt cannot hide the price: Anand Sharma

Congress spokesman Anand Sharma said today that the confidentiality agreement in the Rafale deal did not talk about the pricing issue, declaring that Parliament was misled over the issue.

The controversy over the agreement was triggered during the no-confidence vote on Friday when Congress president Rahul Gandhi accused the Modi government of hiding the price after striking the deal with the French company. The French government was quick to point out that it was an agreement reached between two countries and it does not reveal prices due to national security reasons.

However, Anand Sharma said the French had "no reservation about disclosure of the price".

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"Under French law annual mandatory filing exists, this company sold aircraft's to Qatar and Egypt and it is still Rs 50 crore less than what we have," he said, adding,"Rafale is a scam."

Anand Sharm said according to the Constitution, the government "cannot hide the price of the acquisition. It has to go to PAC and CAG."

"Audit of government purchase takes place. They have to release the price details of the aircraft," he declared.

"Four conditions existed for Rafale. One was the transfer of technology. Another was only 80 would be produced in France and rest would be produced by HAL," he said.

"However, two important conditions are missing - transfer of technology and licence to produce by HAL. In absence of transfer of technology, price of the aircraft would have been reduced but that too is missing," the Congress spokesman told reporters at a press conference.

"Thousands of Indian technical workers would have benefited," he informed.