NEW DELHI, Feb 17: India, which plans to purchase billions of dollars worth of military hardware in the next five years, will soon relax strict rules on arms imports, officials say.A new Defence Procurement Policy, or DPP, will be unveiled by April, Defence Minister A.K. Antony said on Saturday at a defence fair in the capital.

“We have been fine-tuning and improving the DPP based on periodical reviews (and) the current procurement procedure is also under review to make it more transparent and user-friendly,” he said.

Many of the major players in the race to grab a share of arms deals worth $30 billion by 2012 see the current so-called offset policy part of the DPP as restricting growth.

The policy stipulates foreign firms selling products to India must re-invest up to 50 per cent of the total amount through tie-ups and services in the country.

Antony promised the new policy would also help India’s fledgling defence sector.

Global vendors have recently “publicly questioned” the capacity of India’s private sector to absorb large-scale joint ventures with overseas companies, the Press Trust of India said.

Others said the new rules would take into account the “fears and reservations” of global firms on re-investment.

Global companies including US-based aerospace firm Lockheed Martin, however, said they would continue to support India’s offset rules in any form.

“We have done enormous offset worth $37 billion around the world and technology is our capability which would also benefit India,” said Lockheed vice president Philip Georgariou.

BAE Systems said it was locally building 42 of the 66 Hawk trainer jets it sold to India in 2004 for $1.45 billion as part of its offset obligations.

On Sunday at the defence fair, several arms firms said they were already meeting requirements needed to win contracts such as the purchase of 126 multi-role fighters for as much as $12 billion.

“We are submitting our bids three days in advance and which are fully compliant with Indian requirements,” announced Chris Chadwick, president of Boeing’s Integrated Defence Systems.

Boeing is offering its F-18 Super Hornet fighter jets in line with the global tenders India floated last August.

Lockheed said it would give Boeing a run for its money. “We have come up with a configuration in our F-16 which meets the needs of India,” Georgariou said.

Also in the race for the fighter deal are the Russian MiG-35 and MiG-29, Saab’s Gripen, Dassault’s Rafale and Mirage and Eurofighter’s Typhoon.

European Defence and Aerospace Consortium EADS, of which Eurofighter is a unit, also jumped into the fray, saying the Typhoon would pose a strong challenge to its closest rivals.

“We have received firm orders for over 700 aircraft from Britain, Germany Italy, Spain and Austria, and for 72 aircraft from Saudi Arabia... the Typhoon is one of the main contenders,” said EADS spokesman Theodore Benien.

France’s state shipbuilder DCN also unveiled plans on Sunday to set up a subsidiary to back the local manufacture of six Franco-Spanish submarines worth three billion dollars which India agreed to buy in 2005.

The state-run Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and India’s Tata business group on Sunday signed an accord for a joint venture to produce drones, radar and electronic warfare systems.

“We believe the coming together of the Tata and IAI will positively impact the growth of the defence industry in India,” Tata chairman Ratan Tata said.—AFP