New Delhi, Aug 11 (KNN) With the growing instances of MSME suppliers being ignored in the Government tenders even after being mandated under the Public Procurement Policy, KNN caught up with Union MSME Minister Kalraj Mishra to know what steps are being taken to curb this.

Mishra said, “There are guidelines for procurement from MSMEs and there is no question for asking the turnover. They have L1 plus rebate. Wherever these kinds of things are happening, we are taking cognisance of that.”

However, the cases of bidding documents with larger than required eligibility criteria are being raised by the MSME sector, the sector which is considered crucial for the success of PM’s flagship Make in India programme.

In a recent case, the cycle manufactures from the MSME sector in Ludhiana highlighted the Rajasthan Government’s tender for buying 3 lakh bicycles.

The eligibility criteria in the tender wanted the participating units to have a minimum turnover of Rs 200 crore, which surely keeps the MSME units out of its ambit.

Indian Railways, which is the largest buyers of the MSME suppliers, came out with the tenders tweaked in a way that keeps MSMEs non-eligible for participating in the bidding.

HS Chopra, Director, Data Technosys(Engineers) Pvt. Ltd  pointed that a tender notice for some Survey Work for railway was invited by Chief Administrative Officer/Con /N.E. Railway/Gorakhpur vide Open tender notice No. CAO/Con/34/2014.

In this tender in all there were 5 items out of which item Number 3 to 5 were related to SURVEY – i.e. ‘SERVICE SECTOR’ in terms of MSME classification, but clubbed with other to items which are for Civil Works and may not come under the purview of procurement policy.

Due to the crafty clubbing, entire tender was claimed to be beyond the provision of “Public Procurement Policy for goods produced and services rendered by Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) by Central Ministries/Departments/Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs).”

“We raised this issue with  Chief Administrative Officer/Con /N.E. Railway/Gorakhpur (Annexure No-2) with request to amend the same to accommodate MSME as per Government policy,” Chopra told KNN adding that their request was turned down on the ground that the tenders are not for Service’ but are for  ‘Civil work in field’.

The MSME entrepreneur pointed that a CBEC Circular gives list of the services on which Service Tax is payable and Sl no 5,25,73 & 100 of this list covers the basic scope of work of this tender against which as per Service Tax requirement they have to pay service tax.

These are not the only two cases. Many such cases are being pointed by the MSME sector urging for an immediate intervention by the government to check this. (KNN Bureau)