Govt to scrutinize 1,000 procurement tenders, assess impact on procurement fall from land border sharing nations

New Delhi: The government will scrutinize 1,000 high value tenders of 25 procuring entities of the Centre including CPSUs to assess the impact of its Public Procurement (Preference to Make in India) Order 2017, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade ( DPIIT) said.

The assessment will cover decrease in procurement from countries sharing land border with India and the quantum of procurement exclusively from Class-I Local suppliers. In public procurement tenders, departments and ministries are allowed to mandate higher than minimum 50% and 20% local content for two separate categories of local suppliers categorised as Class I and Class II.

“DPIIT intends to on-board a consulting agency…The agency shall scrutinize complete tender documents including tender eligibility requirement, technical specifications and other terms and conditions,” it said.

Before expiry of each year of the contract period, the agency shall carry out a detailed impact assessment study to assess the impact of PPP-MII Order on public procurement ecosystem, it said. This would include details such as the quantum of procurement exclusively from Class-I Local suppliers by granting them purchase preference and increase in procurement from Class - I and Class - II local suppliers.

In July 2020, the government amended the General Financial Rules 2017 to restrict bidders from countries which share a land border with India from bidding in any government procurement contracts on grounds of national security. Such bidders have to register with a Registration Committee constituted by the DPIIT and require political and security clearance from the ministries of external and home affairs, respectively.

In 2024, India tightened the public procurement norms by excluding imported inputs while calculating the local content in its purchase orders. Imported items sourced locally from resellers, distributors, royalties, technical charges paid out of India, and supply of repackaged or refurbished goods are excluded from the calculation of local content. The government also modified the definition of ‘local content’ through the revision. License fees, royalties, or technical charges paid outside India are excluded while calculating local content.