Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has been reportedly asked to modify its tender clause for procuring network equipment for the project being set up for the defence forces. The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has urged the telecom operator to issue a clarification that the clause of mandatory prior experience will not be applicable for the local vendors. BSNL would procure optical network transmission systems and core IP equipments for the proposed Rs 133.34 billion Network for Spectrum project.
DoT is of the view that such a clause in the tender is not in line with the government?s preferential market access (PMA) policy, which states that the local manufacturing must be encouraged and not be subject to any restrictive product specifications or mandatory prior experience. As per the draft PMA norms, the central government body needs to give preference to product that are either manufactured domestically or over 25 per cent components in the product are indigenously made.
However, BSNL will need to seek approval from the defence ministry before modifying its tender clauses as the telecom network will be used by defence forces. In this regard, DoT is likely to ask the Defence Ministry to concur with the proposal to make tenders related to defence network project compliant with PMA norms.
The execution of the project has been delayed as the Telecom Equipment Manufacturers Association (TEMA) had got BSNL?s tender procedure stalled by the Delhi High Court on the grounds of its non adherence to the PMA policy.
