DoT to act against officers discouraging indigenous product purchase

New Delhi, Sep 12 (PTI) The telecom department will act against officers found responsible for inserting clauses in the tender with the malafide intent that restrict the purchase of indigenous products in government projects.

"Disciplinary action will be taken against erring officers who insert restrictive tender condition against local suppliers with a malafide intent or otherwise flout the provisions of PPP-MII order," the new rules issued by the DoT said.

Under the Public Procurement (Preference to Make in India), the department has notified the list of 36 telecom product and equipment that should be given preference in the purchase for public projects.

"...this notification shall be applicable to all central schemes, central sector schemes, for which procurement is made by states and local bodies, if that project or scheme is fully or partially funded by the government of India, including universal service obligation fund projects," the order said.

The notified list includes routers, network equipment, encryption platform, set-top-boxes, 2G to 4G mobile antennas, wifi-based broadband systems, security and surveillance communication systems etc.

The rules require local suppliers to make their products in India by procuring components locally. The DoT has notified product category along with the percentage of local components that they should have for eligibility under the new rule.

Any entity can file a complaint against the supplier shortlisted under the policy against a complaint fee of Rs 2 lakh or 1 percent of the locally supplied telecom products, services or works being procured, whichever is higher, the order said.

"In case, the complaint is found to be incorrect, the complaint fee shall be forfeited. In case, the complaint is upheld in part or full, a deposited fee of the complainant will be refunded without any interest," the order said.