NEW DELHL, India, Reuter April 10: Air India will buy two being 747300 aircrafts this year and pay part of the costs through exports of goods, a government minister said today.
Jagdish Tytler, Minister of State for Civil Aviation, said the government had entered into an agreement with the being to obtain the planes under a “buy back facility”.
The Indian Commerce Ministry and the U.S. Company would identify Indian exports that could cover about 28.5 per cent of the cost of the planes; He told a press conference in Bombay.
The buyback facility of which he gave no details would help Air India save around 85 million dollars in foreign exchange on the cost of the Planes, Tytler said.
Trade officials described the “buy back facility” as a euphemish for countertrade or bartering whose attraction was that neither partner was called upon to pay cash.
They told Reuters last month the Commerce Ministry recently conveyed to foreign interested in selling aircrafts, ships, drilling rigs, and railway equipment that they stood in better chance if they agreed to accept Indian goods in return.
The proposed being deal was the first countertrade agreement to be entered into by Air India, officials said.
Article extracted from this publication >> April 17, 1987
