NAC gets govt nod to revive old Airbus pact
KATHMANDU, FEB 12 -
At a time when the parties are negotiating for an independent government led by the chief justice, the government on Monday gave the go-ahead to the Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) to revive its old agreement with Airbus to purchase aircraft.
A Cabinet meeting on Monday took a decision to this effect. The Cabinet move follows the Supreme Court’s decision that the now-defunct Public Accounts Committee’s (PAC) order to the government to cancel the deal on Dec 28, 2009, was interference in NAC’s matters and the order does not hold any legality.
“Against the backdrop that the government has already agreed to provide guarantee for the purchase of the aircraft, the Cabinet decided to remove all the barriers and directed the NAC to purchase two aircraft from Airbus,” said Ek Nath Dhakal, Minister for Cooperative.
The Supreme Court (SC) had issued the verdict on April 24, 2012. “The PAC directives to stop the deal do not hold any legality and is an absolute interference on NAC,” the court decision stated.
Following the SC decision, the Tourism Ministry had asked the government to remove all the legal hurdles obstructing the NAC form reviving the old deal signed with Airbus. “We (the Ministry) had asked the government to allow us to revive the deal with Airbus after the SC verdict,” said a top-level ministry official.
On Oct 26, 2009, the NAC board had decided to purchase two aircraft from Airbus—an Airbus A320-200 (narrow body) and an A330-200 (wide body)—to expand its international fleet. However, with controversy surrounding the purchase process, the now-defunct PAC had directed the government to cancel the deal.
Subsequently on May 25, 2010, the Ministry of Finance directed the Tourism Ministry to scrap the purchase process. “As of now, NAC and government officials were handicapped with the PAC decision,” the official said, adding that now all legal hurdles have been removed to get back into the old process.
On August 1, 2012, the Cabinet had approved a proposal submitted by the ministry to allow the ailing airline to buy two jets.
In November last year, an NAC team had invited Airbus officials to settle any possible legal hurdles due to past agreements to begin a fresh aircraft purchase process. However, the issue was not discussed extensively.
Airbus has reiterated to supply jets to NAC under the same agreement signed three years ago, but has said the price quoted at the time will not remain the same.
Airbus had quoted $41.28 million for an A320-200 (narrow body) aircraft and $92.84 million for A330-200 (wide body) aircraft on November 6, 2009.
Source: The Kathmandu Post
