The Department of Telecom (DoT) has issued draft norms with a revised list of 36 telecom equipment. Under this, these telecom equipment will get priority in government procurement if they use 50-65 percent local components in manufacturing. According to the draft notification, the Telecom Department has also included satellite phones and other satellite communication gears in the list of products that will get priority in government procurement based on the level of local value addition.
5G telecom equipment is not included in this list. In this regard, a notification issued on September 12 said, ‘The government had issued the Government Procurement (Preference to Make in India) Order 2017 through the Department of Industrial Policy Promotion (DIPP) Order to encourage Make in India. Similarly, the Telecom Department has issued this notification by amending its previous notification.
This proposed rule will also apply if the purchase is made by state governments and local bodies with funding from the central government. The Department of Telecom had also released a similar list in August 2018, but it did not become very popular among government departments. This list did not receive much response, especially after the amendment in the rules by DIPP.
DIPP has placed those units in the category of Class-1 suppliers whose products will have more than 50% local components. Apart from this, those units will be included in the category of Class-2 suppliers in which local components will be 20-50%.
