The Government of Tamil Nadu has issued a press release on Mandatory e-procurement. This release was issued on 1st April, 2023 and is effective from that same date.
It may be recalled that the budget speech of 2022-23 announced that e-procurement system will be made mandatory for all procurements by Governments and public sector entities from 1st April, 2023.
Therefore, the Government has added a new rule to the Tamil Nadu Transparency in Tender Rules, 2000 (TNTIT Rules) that enables it to mandate procuring entities to do procurement through electronic mode through online web portals.
In addition, the Government has now issued orders that all tendering activities for new tenders from 1st April, 2023, shall henceforth be done through the web portal. Any new bid that would be floated thereafter outside this portal would be termed as violation of procedure.
The Earnest Money Deposit can either be paid as bank guarantee or through online money transfer as per the choice of the bidder. Bid opening would be done online at the same time and would be visible to all participating bidders
However, the following procurements are exempted from the requirements of e-procurement:
- procurement for categories specifically mentioned under Section 16 of the TNTIT Act
- procurements governed by the procedure related to projects funded by International Financial Agencies
- bids which have already been floated in offline mode before 1st April, 2023 and are at various stages of procurement
