Even as the government has received over Rs 2,300 crore investment under the telecom production linked incentive scheme, local telecom suppliers have expressed concern over the tender norms of different ministries. The local firms said that large global firms are being preferred by the government departments for procuring equipments, which is restricting growth opportunities for them, according to people aware of the matter.
In a recent meeting with officials from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), the local gear makers alleged manipulations and misuse of the public procurement (preference to Make in India) policy by various ministries. As per the policy, the ministries have to mandatorily procure supplies from the local players. However, some ministries have been keeping stringent eligibility conditions for companies to participate in the tender, which in a way automatically keep the local companies out of the ambit.
For example, in one of the tenders of Northern and Western Railways, the eligibility condition was different. In one of the railway zones, the companies were required to have supplied 1,000 units till now, whereas other were asked for a higher 15,000 units which is not possible for smaller companies. Further, a higher turnover of Rs 100 crore was also the eligibility condition.
Sources in the know said this is not the first time these concerns have been raised. Earlier too in January, DPIIT asked the ministries to strictly follow the public procurement policy. The issue is not related only to the local telecom players but also other firms in the pharma, textiles, auto components etc.
This time, too, DPIIT has issued warnings to different ministries to follow the public procurement policy. One of the directions was to consult telecom department in case any ministry wants to procure telecom equipments, to check if the equipment is available locally or not.
One of the issues in the meeting was also raised regarding the use of certain Wi-Fi equipments in Chandrayaan-3, for which the order was given to HP despite local players making those equipments in India.
An executive with a domestic equipment firm said, the government should start imposing strict fines on ministries and officials concerned in case of any violation in the public procurement policy.
“This is a irony as on one hand government is talking high of increasing the value addition and giving push to local players. On the other hand, just look at the loopholes and gap in the implementation of policy,” another executive at a local firm said on the condition of anonymity. The official added that for domestic companies export opportunity is only helpful to sustain their operations.
Similarly, issues with regard to the government e marketplace (GeM) and entry of infiltrated equipments from untrusted sources were also raised by the local players separately to DoT, sources said.
In the telecom PLI scheme, a total of 42 companies have committed investment of Rs 4,115 crores, additional sales of Rs 2.45 trillion and will create employment of more than 44,000 over five years. Some of the companies including Coral Telecom, Dixon, HFCL, ITI, Lekha Wireless, Tejas, Samsung India, Vihaan Networks, etc, are the beneficiaries.
Till now, the companies have invested Rs 2,230 crore and generated sales of Rs 28,724 crore.