New Delhi, Sep 30 (KNN) Taking again for granted the reservations given to the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the MSMED Act for public procurement policy, the Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd (RVNL), one of the subsidiary of India Railway, has “manipulated” a tender to restrict the entry of  MSMEs.

It may be noted that KNN India has been doing a series of stories on how the railway tenders have not allowed even the eligible MSMEs to apply for a tender.

http://knnindia.co.in/news/newsdetails/msme/railway-official-adopt-dubious-means-to-keep-mses-out-of-government-contracts

http://knnindia.co.in/news/newsdetails/msme/medium/eligible-msmes-ignored-in-railway-tenders

KNN India, through industry body FISME, has been taking up the matter to the concerned departments and MSME Ministry.

“A recent tender floated by Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd (RVNL), one of the subsidiary of Indian Railways, was manipulated by merging  two different sanctioned works into a single Package for Consultancy services, thereby enhancing the entry level turnover requirement to about Rupees 20.0 Crores,  cleverly Screening out MSME firms,” highlighted H.S. Chopra, Managing Director, Data Technosys (Engineers) Pvt Ltd.

“On the other hand in the same tender for the same works for Construction, RVNL  have invited independent individual packages”,  he added.

RVNL tender is for doubling of track between Utratia Junction‐Raebareli‐Amethi for Construction of Road bed, Major and Minor Bridges and track linking (Excluding supply of Rails and PSC Line Sleepers), Civil Engineering works, S&T Works and General Electrical works on Lucknow Division of Northern Railway in Uttar Pradesh.

Chopra even pointed out to the concerned authorities to get them addressed to which they replied saying “Not Agreed to as the packaging of tender is an administrative policy decision for the effective execution of the work.”

The detailed complaint in this regard has been put up by MSME entrepreneur Sandeep Saxena to R. Rajalakshmi, Chief Vigilance Officer.

With the growing instances of MSME suppliers being ignored in the Government tenders even after being mandated under the Public Procurement Policy, KNN had recently 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.”

http://knnindia.co.in/videos/videodetails/no-question-of-asking-for-turnovers-msmes-have-l1-rebates-kalraj-mishra-on-tenders-ignoring-mses

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. (KNN Bureau)