The Defence Ministry will examine cases of blacklisted firms as it prepares a new list of such entities following the new policy on blacklisting unveiled on Tuesday. The liberalised policy to help the armed forces maintain their tempo of modernisation is a mixture of heavy fines and graded banning. The Defence Acquisition Council(DAC) chaired by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar had cleared the new policy a fortnight back.
Parrikar said here the Director General (Acquisition) will draw up a list as required under the new policy and hence old cases will also be looked into. “That does not mean they will be taken out. Don’t interpret... They will be examined. What is the status, how many years they have been blacklisted for and why they were blacklisted,” he said adding as per the new policy, there has to be a new list.
The review will include about a dozen firms that were blacklisted during the UPA regime and the Services were of the opinion that such a ban will hamper rapid modernization. Under its new liberalised blacklisting policy for arms companies, India will now be open to doing business even with a banned firm if there is no alternative available to its weapon system or equipment in the market.
This can be done on the grounds of national security, operational military readiness and export obligations, after the vice-chief of the Service concerned, the chief of the integrated defence staff or the additional secretary (defence production) signs a certificate to that effect and gets permission from the “competent authority”, who is the Defence Minister.
Another key element of the new policy is that unlike the blanket ban of 10 years, the Government has said that ban on serious defaulters will be for minimum five years. The policy does not mention the maximum time period for ban.