The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has taken a significant step to boost domestic manufacturing in the telecom sector. In a notification issued recently, the telecom department has identified 36 products for which a minimum local content of 50% or more is now required in public procurement.
To encourage stakeholder input, the DoT has invited comments on the draft notification within 15 days. The revised norms will apply to procurement by central government entities, including state-run companies and local bodies, as well as projects funded by the Universal Service Obligation Fund. “This Notification shall be applicable in respect of the procurement made by all attached or subordinate offices or autonomous bodies under the Government of India including Government Companies as defined in the Companies Act, and/or the States and Local Bodies making procurement under all Central Schemes/ Central Sector Schemes where the Scheme is fully or partially funded by the Government of India. This Notification shall also be applicable in respect of projects wherein funding of goods, services or works are by the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF),” said the DoT order.
Also Read : 8th Pay Commission Update: Major reforms from 5th, 6th, and 7th Pay Commissions and projected salary hike
In an effort to further promote “Make in India,” the government has excluded imported items sourced from resellers and distributors from the calculation of local content. Additionally, royalties, technical charges paid abroad, and repackaged or refurbished goods are no longer considered as local content.
36 products in the list
As per the report, these 36 products include routers, ethernet switches, media gateways, customer premises equipment, Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) equipment, IP based Soft Switches, IMS, Unified Communication Systems, Wireline PABXs, VSAT Hub Subsystems, Satellite Phones(S Bands), Telecom Batteries, IP Audio/Video phones and IP/ Internet Set-top Box. From this list certain products will have minimum local content of more than 50%, on rest, the minimum local content has to be 65%.
“Sufficient local capacity and competition for these products in India”
According to the telecom department, the 36 products identified in the list have sufficient local capacity and competition. The notification said that DoT will prioritise class-I suppliers, who must have at least 50% local content. If a class-I supplier is unable to fulfil an order, a class-II supplier with at least 20% local content may be considered. Manufacturers participating in the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for telecom products will be classified as class-II suppliers.
Also Read : How to protect yourself from financial scams? Here are 7 ways
To support indigenous technologies, the DoT has introduced the possibility of including proof of concept in tenders and requests for proposals as an alternative to qualifying experience, where applicable.
