Norms for private minters ready

The norms for private companies wanting to participate in currency production have been firmed up, with a key ingredient of the new guidelines specifying that the installed and past supply capacity of the bidding company should be at least 50 per cent of the annual requirement tendered.

The guidelines were approved by the Cabinet Secretariat and the finance ministry last month, sources told Business Standard.

The norms will mean greater clarity for private companies, which are interested in printing currency notes and minting coins at the government presses. The guidelines will be applicable on the next set of tenders to be issued by the government presses and the Reserve Bank of India.

The guidelines specify that only an Indian agent, acting on behalf of the foreign company, or the foreign company itself can participate directly in the tender.

The key thing here is that both players cannot bid for the same order. This implies that only a company or its agent can represent one principal, unlike earlier.

A pre-qualification bid is likely to be floated against tender option, with pre-qualification criteria to facilitate genuine suppliers to get short-listed.

The parameters have been so fixed that only those suppliers which meet the guidelines are given the tender documents mentioning the specifications.

The criteria seek scrutiny of the financial health of the firm for the last five years. The bidder should not have suffered any financial loss for more than two years.

Another condition stipulates that the net worth of the firm should not have reduced by more than 50 per cent over the same period. The criteria also require that the annual turnover of the firm should be 30 per cent of the total annual requirement of items.

"It also mentions that for the procurement of plant and machinery for manufacturing or printing of security documents or currency, the participating companies should have supplied similar plants and machinery to two countries during the last three years," sources added.

The samples supplied by the interested companies would be tested only at accredited national or government approved laboratories.