New Delhi, January 30: Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) report on the Rafale deal is likely to be tabled in Parliament by the central government during the upcoming Budget Session. According to reports, the government has replied to the CAG's queries on Rafale deal and other defence deals. As per CNN News 18, the CAG report will reveal whether the deal inked by the Narendra Modi government has incurred any losses to the exchequer or not without mentioning the exact price of the aircraft.

On December 14, last year, the Supreme Court dismissed all petitions seeking a probe into the pricing of the deal. A bench, headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi, said there was "nothing questionable" in the decision-making process for the Rafale deal. The top court in paragraph 25 of the judgment mentioned - The pricing details have,   however, been shared with the Comptroller and Auditor General (hereinafter referred to as “CAG”), and the report of the CAG has been examined by the Public Accounts Committee (hereafter referred to as “PAC”).  Only a redacted portion of the report was placed before the Parliament, and is in the public domain.

However, on the very next day of the verdict, the attorney general filed an affidavit before the top court "seeking factual corrections" in its verdict. In the affidavit, the government asked the court to make an amendment in Para 25 by replacing two keywords 'has been' and 'was' with ‘is’. The government asked for the amendment to make it a statement of a procedure. The affidavit is yet to appear in the Supreme Court. The PAC is a parliamentary body that audits the government's revenues and expenditure. The committee is currently headed by Congress leader in the Lok Sabha, Malikarjun Kharge.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi has been targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and his government over the Rafale deal with France and asking why a 70-year-old defence public sector company Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) was ignored for manufacturing the fighter jet. The Congress also claimed that the Modi government had purchased the aircraft at higher prices.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 30, 2019 02:14 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).