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Trivandrum: All Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) under the Department of Industries in Kerala have migrated to the e-procurement and online tendering platform (etenders.kerala.gov.in) of the National Informatics Centre (NIC) from August 01, 2012. In the first phase, tenders above Rs.25 lakhs will be done only through e-tendering and the next phase would see the introduction of e-payment.

Launching the system, Industries Minister Shri P K Kunhalikutty said, “The new process would increase performance of PSUs and their transparency while making them more accountable. The introduction of e-procurement and online tendering will also increase the profitability of the State owned Enterprises as this will lower the purchase price”.

Giving details about the benefits of the new system, K Padmakumar, Secretary, Public Sector Restructuring and Internal Audit Board (RIAB) said, “There are 37 State owned Enterprises under the Department of Industries with a turnover of Rs.2,500 crores. They spend Rs.1,600 crores for purchases and about 70% of this is for raw materials. A common procurement process made possible through the e-procurement portal of NIC would bring in better transparency and cost effectiveness. A 10 % reduction in the purchase price would save about Rs.150 crores for the PSUs.”

64 tenders worth Rs.165 crores are already live on the e-tender portal on the first day itself and more tenders are expected in the coming days. The portal allows anytime anywhere bidding and also provides SMS facility to all bidders at all steps of bidding. Shorter procurement cycle, enhanced security, automated and lesser stages of bidding as compared to the manual tendering process makes the e-tendering process more economical. The NIC e-tendering portal also follows the CVC guidelines and this would give more confidence to the CEOs of PSUs to use the system.

V Somasundaran IAS, Additional Chief Secretary (Industries & Commerce); K S Srinivas IAS, Special Secretary (Industries); G Vijayaraghavan, Member - Kerala State Planning Board; Dr. K Santhanaraman, State Information Officer, NIC and Managing Directors of several PSUs were present on the occasion.

Kerala IT News