BEML, Sipox planned to test African markets

NEWDELHI: The CBI, probing the Tatra truck deal, has found material pertaining to BEML’s contracts with Tatra Sipox UK. The relations between BEML and the people who ran Tatra Sipox UK were deepening to such an extent that the two were planning to explore the African market jointly. Not to mention the proposal to buy out the UK wing, by BEML — no doubt an arrangement that would have benefited all concerned.The other key player in the deal is, of course Ravi Rishi, who is currently being interrogated by the CBI and the ED. The London-based millionaire NRI’s Vectra Ltd was projected as the umbrella company, with majority shareholdings in Tatra Czech, Tatra Slovakia and Tatra Sipox UK.Vladimir Bystrov, spokesperson of the original Tatra Czech company, has disputed the contention, saying, “Vectra is a minority shareholder in the Tatra holdings. Mr Rishi will surely have to do some explaining when the Indian investigative agencies interrogate him.’’The crux of the deal is simple. The mother company, going through financial stress in the late 1990s, agreed to sell Rishi CKDs at a cost cheaper than the manufacturing cost. Rishi’s UK-based Tatra Sipox resold it to BEML at a neat profit. The PSU in turn sold it to the Indian Army at a further profit of `20 lakh per truck. The army was paying for all the mark-ups that went into private hands.From small 4x4 variants costing Rs 40 lakh to heavy 12x12 ones worth Rs 1 crore, the BEML-assembled Tatra trucks are the backbone of the Indian army transport system. Even heavy-duty missiles, like Brahmos and Akash, are supposed to be launched from them. It’s not as if the army lacked options; it could have bought trucks through the multi-vendor system from other manufacturers like Ashok Leyland and Tata Trucks, at a much lesser cost — Rs 16 lakh per truck. This is where Natarajan figures again.Till the time army chief V K  Singh refused buy the Tatra trucks — even cancelling the order of 490 trucks for which BEML’s said to have already purchased the CKDs — Natarajan and BEML managed to coax the Defence Ministry procurement wing to let it remain the single vendor. In 2003, during Natarajan’s tenure, for reasons best known to it, it also decided to change the currency of procurement from US dollars to Euro, at a time of great currency fluctuation.Though many of Natarajan’s statements have been contradicted by the original Czech Tatra company spokesperson, alleged wrongdoings are not all from his tenure.