India amends govt procurement norms- reciprocal participation, local content requirements upped

NEW DELHI: India on Friday amended its public procurement rules to bar those entities of countries from participating in government procurement which do not allow Indian companies to participate in their Government procurement.
“As per the Order, entities of countries which do not allow Indian companies to participate in their government procurement for any item, shall not be allowed to participate in government procurement in India for all items related to that nodal ministry/department, except for the list of items published by the ministry/department permitting their participation,” the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) said in a statement.

The amendment also expanded the scope for local content requirement in public procurement tenders and allowed departments and ministries to mandate higher than minimum 50% and 20% local content stipulated earlier for two separate categories of local suppliers.

The department on June 4 amended the Public Procurement Order, 2017 and mandated 50% for Class I and 20% for Class II local content requirement for local suppliers, replacing the earlier practice of awarding the tender to the lowest price bidder called L1, in a move to give greater preference to local suppliers, as part of the overarching Aatmanirbhar Bharat mission.

“Specifying foreign certifications/ unreasonable technical specifications/ brands/ models in the bid document is restrictive and discriminatory practice against local suppliers,” DPIIT said.

The department added that foreign certification, if required, shall be stipulated only with the approval of secretary of the department concerned.

Further, all ministries and departments whose procurement exceeds Rs 1,000 crore per annum would have to notify their procurement projections for the next five years.