The cabinet committee on economic affairs (CCEA) on Wednesday approved the proposal of Department of Telecommunications (DoT) regarding continuation of reservation quota for ITI Limited in procurements made by BSNL, MTNL and Bharat Broadband Network Limited (BBNL).

This will provide relief to ITI and also help in generating more employment opportunities in the company, particularly in the field of new telecom technologies. Previously, in January 2014 CCEA had extended the quota benefit for ITI for a period of one year which expired on September 20, 2014.

Now, BSNL, MTNL and BBNL will reserve 30% of the procurement orders for ITI  for the products manufactured by it and for those outsourced items in which there is a minimum 5% value addition by ITI during 2016-17 and 8% value addition in 2017-18.

The three organisations will also reserve 20% of the orders for the turnkey projects [like GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication) network roll-out etc. of BSNL and MTNL and National Optical Fibres Network (NOFN) network roll-out, etc. of BBNL] for ITI.

ITI would accept orders under reservation quota only after the price is known and if the same is commercially viable. ITI shall exercise its option under Reservation Quota within 15 days of bid opening, an official release said.

The new policy measures shall remain in force for two years with effect from the date of approval of CCEA and shall again be reviewed considering the financial health of ITI after the expiry of this period.

However, the government has introduced Public Bill 2012 in parliament, and under its provisions, procuring entities, including CPSEs, would have to frame Rules for Public Procurement of Goods, Works and Services. Once such Public Procurement Rules for CPSEs are framed after the enactment of Public Procurement Act, the same would also be applicable to CPSEs under the administrative control of the DoT.