Government tenders worth about â¹30,000 crores have been cancelled over ‘discriminatory practices’, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) said on February 17.
It is claimed that restrictive and discriminative tender practices prevent domestic companies from participation in the government procurement, hurting the ‘Make in India’ initiative.
The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has intervened from time to time to change conditions in some of the tenders in order to promote ‘Made in India’ goods.
‘Many of the restrictive and discriminative tender practices have been identified. Almost â¹30,000 crore (worth) of tenders have been cancelled because of discriminatory practices,’ the Economic Times quoted DPIIT Secretary Guruprasad Mohapatra as saying.
He further said that the Central Vigilance Commission have been ordered inquiries wherever the department felt that a tender had been floated deliberately with a mala fide intention to deny a level-playing field to an Indian player.
Under the Public Procurement (Preference to Make in India) Order, all the central government departments, their attached or subordinate offices and autonomous bodies are supposed to ensure that purchase preference is given to domestic suppliers during procurement.
The Economic Survey 2019-20 had suggested that the government should promote ‘Assemble in India for the world’ into the flagship ‘Make in India’ programme to boost exports and generate jobs.
Also, in the Union Budget for 2020-21, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman significantly increased the budget allocation for Make in India to â¹1,281.97 crores.
The DPIIT Secretary also said that government departments and public sector companies should give preference to local players. ‘The government has taken many initiatives like Make in India, ease of doing business, investor facilitation, FDI reforms, new infrastructure creation and various outreach programmes to increase the share of manufacturing in GDP and create 100 million jobs by 2024,’ Mohapatra said.
