Euro firms submit offset bids for aircraft deal

New Delhi: Two months after being shortlisted, French firm Dassault and consortium of European companies Eurofighter have submitted their revised offset bids for the multi-billion dollar 126 combat aircraft deal, the process for which is expected to be completed by the year end.

On April 27, India has shortlisted the two European companies for procuring 126 Medium-Multirole Combat Aircraft (M-MRCA) deal for the Indian Air Force (IAF) in which six companies were participating.

"The offsets offer, which were completed until April 14 this year, have been asked to be revised until June 17 that is today," German Ambassador Thomas Mattusek told reporters here.
Officials in Dassault also said they have already submitted the revised bids with the ministry.

Under the offsets clause in the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP), foreign vendors bagging deals worth over Rs 300 crore have to reinvest at least 30 per cent of the contract amount into Indian defence, civilian aerospace or the homeland security sectors.

In the M-MRCA competition, companies have to invest 50 per cent of the worth of the deal into the Indian defence sector only.

"The shortlist and commercial biddings are expected to be opened in the next few weeks so that the whole project is expected to be finalised by the end of this year," the German Ambassador said.

Germany along with United Kingdom, Spain and Italy is one of the four partner nations in the Eurofighter consortium and is the lead country for the Indian campaign.

PTI / ZeeNews