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Fiscal Developments 77

¾ Stringent deadlines for making payments: Delay in payments to contractors results in
prolonged project execution, cost overruns and disputes. The new guidelines stipulate
timely release of payments of 75 per cent or more of bills raised within 10 working days
of the submission of the bill. The remaining bill payment is to be made after final checking
within 28 working days. The procuring entity is also liable to pay interest if the payment of
bills is delayed by over 30 working days.

¾ Single bid rejection: The new rules stipulate public authorities to consider single bid as
valid provided that the procurement was satisfactorily advertised, sufficient time was given
for submission of bids, the qualitative criterion were not unduly restrictive and prices are
reasonable in comparison to market values.
¾ Fixed Budget based Selection for Consultancy Services: An additional method, fixed
budget-based Selection has been added for consultancy services wherein the type of
consulting service required is simple and/or repetitive and can be precisely defined. Under
this method, the cost of consulting services shall be specified as affixed budget in the tender
document itself. Because of the basic and repetitive nature of the consultancy work, its
budget can be reasonably approximated.

Table 9: Alternative Methods of Public Procurement

Services Services
Alternatives Goods Works
(Consultancy) (Non-Consultancy)

Least Cost System (LCS) √ √ √ √

Quality-cum-Cost Based X √√ √ √√
Selection

Single Source Selection √ √ √ √

Fixed Budget Based Selection X X √√ X

Source: General Financial Rules
Note: √ - Already available in GFR 2017; √√ - Allowed in 2021 notification; X- Not allowed