Gandhinagar: Gujarat government today announced a new Gujarat Procurement Policy 2024. So far the policy announced in 2016 was effective in the State. The government said the new policy would help in realizing the Atmanirbhar Bharat and Make in India. The new policy covers all government departments, Head of the Departments, district offices, authorities, grant-in-aid organizations, boards, corporations, societies for procurement of items and services.

The government said the new policy would encourage purchases from micro and small scale units. the new policy would encourage, cottage, SC/ST and women entrepreneurs. Compared to other suppliers, Gujarat based MSEs will be supported. Gujarat based startups will also be supported. The local suppliers will be waived off from tender fee and earnest money deposit(EMD).

The state government has set various limits for non-tender purchases under this policy, including non-tender purchases from government institutions up to Rs. 15 lakh purchase from government owned institutions or public sector units (PSUs) up to Rs. 15 lakhs purchase without tender, from Government recognized institutions up to Rs. 5 lakh without tender purchase and from startups Rs. 15 lakhs limit for purchase without tender has been fixed. Additionally, startups are exempted from the criteria of minimum prior experience and minimum turnover requirements.

New Procurement Policy-2024 prioritizes procurement of goods and services from suppliers with high value addition in India and Gujarat. Under this policy the estimated cost of procurement of items is Rs. Global tender inquiry will be issued only in case of more than 200 crores. Apart from this Rs. All procurement of goods and services above 1 lakh, including procurement through GeM portal, will be done through e-tender only.

The new policy mandates adoption of BIS product specifications for procurement of items for which BIS specifications are available. Through the new procurement policy, the state government promotes procurement of all goods and services through the Government-e-Marketplace (GeM) portal.

Notably, suggestions were received from various organizations, manufacturing units, various associations, boards/corporations, government departments/Heads of Departments (HoDs) for quite a few changes in the purchase policy. Hence, Government of Gujarat has decided to focus more on Make in India initiative in its Purchase Policy 2016 and address all relevant suggestions of stakeholders.

It is worth mentioning that the state government in 2022-23 Rs. Purchased goods and services worth more than 1.47 lakh crore. DeshGujarat