Govt eases public procurement norms for Covid supplies

India on Thursday exempted the procurement of supplies to contain Covid-19 from mandatory local content requirements and allowed all ministries to float global tenders for less than Rs 200 crore for such supplies. In an order, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) said the exemption is applicable till September 30.

“The administrative department undertaking the procurement…may exempt the procurement of supplies required for containment of Covid-19 global pandemic from the applicability of this order/any provision,” DPIIT said in the order.

ET had reported Thursday that India is likely to ease curbs on government procurement from countries it shares land borders with such as China for some time to boost emergency supplies and also allow to allow all ministries to float global tenders for less than Rs 200 crore for Covid supplies.


The move comes amid India witnessing severe shortage of critical medicines, medical devices and vaccines as the pandemic rages across the country. India's daily case count of Covid-19 went past the 3.5 lakh mark on Thursday and the country recorded more than 4,000 deaths for the second consecutive day.

The amendment covers the orders issued on June 15, 2017 on Public Procurement (Preference to Make in India) which were revised on May 28, 2018; May 29, 2019; June 4, 2020 and September 16, 2020.

The latest amendment also reverses the norm that bar those entities of countries from participating in government procurement which do not allow Indian companies to participate in their government procurement.

In an effort to become self-reliant and reduce its dependence on imports especially non-essential ones and promote domestic manufacturing, the government had mandated local content in public procurement. In public procurement tenders, departments and ministries were allowed to mandate higher than minimum 50% and 20% local content for two separate categories of local suppliers categorised as Class I and Class II.