BOOSTING ‘MAKE IN INDIA’

  • The Union government has flagged over a dozen “restrictive and discriminatory” conditions which prevented local suppliers from participating in bidding processes initiated by its various departments and Ministries.
  • The conditions were in violation of the Public Procurement-Preference to Make in India (PPP-MII) Order, 2017, issued to protect the interests of local suppliers, the Centre said.
  • Last week, the Ministry of Railways directed General Managers of all Zonal Railways and production units to make sure that all procuring agencies across the railway network complied with the PPP-MII Order and avoid including any “restrictive and discriminatory” conditions against local suppliers.
  • The communication follows the latest guidelines issued by the Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry on December 20, 2022, which highlighted some of the common examples of “restrictive and discriminatory” conditions against local suppliers and some other eligibility norms that were non-compliant to the PPP-MII Order.
  • The DPIIT in consultation with the Department of Expenditure and the Government e-Marketplace (GeM) had identified over a dozen conditions commonly introduced in tender conditions that went against the local suppliers but suited the interests of foreign manufacturers and issued an advisory.

Foreign standards

  • For instance, the advisory said that foreign technical standards like “minus 25 degree temperature-compatibility” for certain equipment procured for airports were incorporated to eliminate ‘Make in India’ products without any justification for requirement of that specification value for intended end use of the equipment/service.
  • Excessive turnover requirement as a pre-qualifying criteria, insisting on specific experience of supplying products to other nations such as export to G-8 countries, were among other conditions that prevented the local manufacturers from taking part in the procurement process, the advisory said.
  • Another criteria which was observed in the procurement of IT, electronic and electrical products was specifying foreign brands either for finished products or for part of scope of work. The report explained that while CISCO, NEC, Alcatel, Siemens products were specified in telecom products, HP, Dell, Lenovo were insisted on IT products.

SOURCE: THE HINDU, THE ECONOMIC TIMES, PIB

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