Agusta, Finmecannica bookings for Defexpo scrapped

After scrapping its Rs 3,600 crore chopper contract, the Defence Ministry today said it has ousted AgustaWestland and its parent group Finmecannica, facing bribery charges, from the biennial military exhibition Defexpo-14 starting Thursday by cancelling their bookings.

"Any firm which is facing any investigation or has been blacklisted, that company and its group firms will not be allowed to display their equipment at the Defexpo. AgustaWestland and Finmecannica had booked online for the show and their bookings were cancelled after we detected them," Secretary (Defence Production) G D Pati said here.

"The Defence Ministry holds the right to cancel the booking of any such firms," he told a press conference on the biennial military exhibition Defexpo to be held from February 6 to 9.

The Defence Ministry has cancelled the bookings of Finmecannica and its group companies including Oto Malera, WASS and AgustaWestland after the chopper manufacturing firm's contract was cancelled for supplying VVIP helicopters.

The Ministry had cancelled the contract on January 1 after it found the firm allegedly guilty of violating the pre-contract integrity pact.

On the export potential of items developed indigenously by India, Pati said, "HAL has certain platforms such as ALH Dhruv chopper and Dornier aircraft, which can be used to penetrate the foreign markets including friendly foreign countries."

Additional Secretary (Defence Production) Ashok Gupta said the government was also working towards easing the norms for export licences for the public and private sector defence firms after holding consultations with all the stake-holders.