"We on Monday forwarded a request letter to this connection to the MoF, responding positively to the Chinese proposal to supply two aircraft on grant and rest on soft loans," said Yajna Prasad Gautam, secretary at MoCTCA.[break]
The letter written by the MoCTCA seeks the MoF help to acquire the aircraft on Chinese assistance as NAC is badly in need of aircraft. "We expect the MoF to respond to our request soon," Gautam told Republica.
The MoCTCA´s request to the MoF came two days after it decided to accept the latest Chinese offer under which it expressed to provide two MA-60 aircraft and four Harbin Y-12 to Nepal under its assistance.
Under the proposal, China has said it would provide one MA-60 and one Y-12 under grant assistance and another MA-60 and three Y-12 aircraft along with their spare parts on soft-loans of US$ 35 million.
The MoCTCA approached the MoF for support because all deals related to foreign assistance can be processed by the MoF alone.
Going by the existing laws, if the MoF agreed to MoCTCA´s proposal, it would prepare a new proposal of its own in this regard with due inputs from Ministry of Law and Justice and forward the same to the cabinet for approval.
Once the cabinet grants its permission, the MoF would then sign the agreement with the Chinese government, paving the way for the separate commercial deal between MoCTCA and the Chinese supplier for the procurement.
Officials said MoCTCA accepted the Chinese proposal mainly after Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai gave his nod for the procurement of the China made aircraft last month. He even instructed concerned ministries to start the process of procurement seriously.
“Besides, the rate offered by the Chinese for the aircraft is better than what it offered last time,” said a MoCTCA official. However, Gautam said the rate offered by China was informal and it could further be reduced when they hold the final negotiations.
The Ministry would hold final negotiations only after it gets Cabinet´s nod.
This is not the first time MoCTCA has pushed the MoF for the procurement of the Chinese aircraft. In fact, its records show the latest request is third in a series of such efforts made over last one year.
The Ministry had started the process after the then Tourim Minister Lokendra Bista Magar signed a MoU with Chinese manufacturer Avic International for the deal. But the deal never materialized as the MoU was signed without following due process.
"Apart from this faulty start, MoF did not respond to our earlier requests also because its officials were not convinced over technical specifications of the aircraft," a senior MoCTCA official said, expressing skepticism over materialization of the deal this time as well.
However, Secretary Gautam said the technical issues were matter to be dealt by Civial Aviation Ministry alone.
"We might not even need to worry about that because a study in this regard has already been carried out," he said. A technical team of NAC last year said that Chinese aircraft were fit for operation and they were satisfied with the technical specifications.
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