Key Points

The new manual is aimed at achieving self-reliance in fulfilling the needs of the Armed Forces under Revenue Head (Operations and Sustenance Segment), said the official in a statement.

The DPM 2025 will foster jointness among the three Services and help in maintaining the highest level of military preparedness through expeditious decision-making. It will ensure the timely availability of requisite resources to the Armed Forces at an appropriate cost.

Ease of doing business has been further strengthened in the document, which aims to boost Aatmanirbharta in defence manufacturing and technology, the official statement said.

The objective is to utilise the potential, expertise, and capability of the domestic market in the defence sector by ensuring active participation of private players, MSMEs, start-ups, along with the well-established Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs), it said.

Procurement of goods and services by the Defence Services and of other organisations under the Ministry of Defence is regulated by DPM, which was last promulgated in 2009. This Manual was under revision in the Ministry in consultation with the Armed Forces and other stakeholders.

The DPM lays down the guiding principles and provisions for all revenue procurements in the Ministry valued at around Rs 1 lakh crore for the current Financial Year.

The revised document has been aligned with the updated provisions of the Manual for Procurement of Goods issued by the Ministry of Finance. As a major thrust to Aatmanirbhar Bharat, a new chapter has been included to promote self-reliance through innovation and indigenisation.

This will help in the indigenisation of defence items/spares through in-house designing and development in collaboration with public/private industries, academia, IITs, IISc and other private institutions of repute by utilising the talent of young bright minds, the statement said.

The concerns of the individuals/industry who want to venture into this sector have been addressed by relaxing many provisions of development contracts. Provision has been introduced not to levy Liquidity Damages (LD) during the development phase. Minimal LD at the rate of 0.1 per cent will be levied post-development of the prototype. The maximum LD to be levied has been lowered to 5 per cent, and in case of inordinate delays only, the maximum LD will be 10 per cent. This will result in incentivising those suppliers who genuinely try to meet the deadline but make the supplies with little delay, said the statement.

In addition, a provision has been made to provide an assured guarantee of orders in terms of quantity, up to five years and beyond that up to another five years in special circumstances. Another provision has been introduced to provide requisite support through handholding by the Services in terms of sharing of technical know-how, existing equipment, etc, with the aim to ensure successful development.

The revised document will empower the Competent Financial Authorities at the field level/lower formations, expedite decision making, avoid movement of files between lower and higher levels and ensure timely payment to the suppliers. Competent Financial Authorities (CFAs) have been empowered to take a decision in consultation with their financial advisors in respect of granting extension in the delivery period, irrespective of the quantum of delay, without approaching higher authorities.

The concept of collegiate decision-making has been further strengthened in line with existing practice being followed in the case of the acquisition of capital assets. The CFAs have now been delegated the power to increase bid opening dates up to a certain limit in case there is a lack of participation without referring the matter to their Financial Advisors to increase participation.

In view of the complexity of repair/refit/maintenance of various aerial and naval platforms, an upfront provision of 15 per cent in growth of work has been extended for all such activities to reduce the downtime of equipment and ensure its availability for operations with minimum delay, said the statement.

To fulfil the need of those goods which are specialised in nature and available with limited sources, as per the new provisions, Limited Tendering can be resorted to for a value up to Rs 50 lakh, and beyond that in exceptional circumstances. In case of proprietary items, provision for procurement on Propriety Article Certificate basis has been kept subject to parallel efforts for exploring the market for identification of alternative sources, it said.

- IANS