Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) on Wednesday said differences over technology transfer has led to the breakdown in talks between the company and Rafale jet maker Dassault and rubbished reports that pricing issues led to the stagnation of the deal.

"The main point that HAL raised was the depth of technology that was being transferred. It was held with other original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) along with Dassault we wanted that because making the structure was not a problem. So that is where we had some issues," said R Madhavan, chairman and managing director, HAL.

Dassault Aviation, the makers of Rafale, had chosen Reliance Defence as its partner to fulfill offset obligations of the deal. Opposition parties had accused the government of choosing Reliance Defence over state-run HAL to benefit the private firm though it did not have any experience in the aerospace sector.

On the issues related to time taking to manufacturing a jet and cost, Madhavan said, the cost consists of two parts -- the material cost and the labour cost. "Material cost if it kept high and labour content is not very big, in that case, we should look at the final cost how it is built up," Madhavan told CNBC-TV18.

Initially, when you ask for the first aircraft timings that is man-hours, it will definitely be higher because you cannot compare the first one versus the 100th one that is producing so that is a difference, Madhavan said, adding that the first one is a learning curve and generally, the learning curve has a margin of 79-80 percent.

"The learning timings are higher. As you continue to produce the aircrafts then the time comes down," Madhavan added.

In fact, if you look at the Su-30 (multirole fighter aircraft developed by Russian company Sukhoi), HAL is at a level which is lower than the Russians, so that means the company is much more efficient, he said

Earlier, the government had told the Supreme Court that HAL required "2.7 times higher man-hours compared to the French side for the manufacture of Rafale aircraft in India" and that is one of the reasons Dassault chose Anil Ambani-led Reliance.

First Published:Nov 28, 2018 5:23 PM IST