DoP adds 19 medical devices to public procurement policy
It gives preference to Make in India products
The Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) has incorporated 19 medical devices in the revised guidelines of the public procurement policy. The revised order is giving preference to the Make in India products.
The order issued by the DoP on March 25, 2021, states that in terms of para 3 (a) of DPIIT’s PPM MII order no 45021/2/2017 PP dated September 16, 2020, the department vide order of even number dated February 16, 2021, had notified a list of 135 medical devices. Now in continuation of this, the Department has further notified 19 items of medical devices as per para 3 (a) of DPIIT’s order for which only class -I local supplier shall be eligible to bid irrespective of purchase value.
The order also mentioned that there may be other class I local suppliers also available in the market and supplies indicated in the list may offer products which do not offer minimum local content requirement for class -I supplier. Therefore, such procuring entities may follow all prescribed procurement procedures without relying on the published list.
This order will be applicable in respect of the procurement made by 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 or where the scheme is fully or partially funded by Government of India.
Rajiv Nath, Forum Coordinator, AiMeD, commented, “This is a real boost to Make in India. This single strategic action will help boost domestic manufacturing imports bill reduction by 5-10 per cent so approximately Rs 3-4000 Cr impact. Many thanks to the Department of Pharmaceuticals for using the Public Procurement Order as a Make in India enabler while addressing the issue of pseudo manufacturers – now actual manufacturers who do the real value addition and not just sticking labels or repackaging will get the gain of their investments in India.”
However, Medical Technology Association of India (MTaI) expressed disappointment at the move and stated, “Despite the assurance of the Ministry of Commerce that no PPOs will come without proper analysis of local market capacity, we are still seeing such a notice, which on first reading, seems to be made without doing a proper due-diligence on. A blanket declaration is made that 19 HSN codes will be procured from only class I local suppliers, overlooking the fact that these codes are not monolithic. Each of these codes may comprise of many categories several of which may not even be manufactured in India.”
The statement added, “We have also observed that the list of manufacturers that are indicated in the order, fails to mention some of the globally renowned manufacturers who already have a strong manufacturing footprint in India as well as a significant share of the market. We prima facie feel that this will be a regressive step, as this could further push down FDI investment which has just picked up pace primarily due the undespairing spirit of the global investors.”