Earnest Money Deposit through e-Procurement Portal

Government of West Bengal
Finance Department
Audit Branch

No. 3975-F(Y) Dated, 28th July, 2016

MEMORANDUM

Sub: Online receipt and refund of EMD of e-procurement through State Government e-procurement portal

The State Government procurement portal has already been integrated with the Payment Gateway of ICICI Bank for deposit of EMD and other fees by the bidders participating in e-procurement.

Now, in cancellation of this Department Memorandum No. 1526-F(Y) dated 18.03.2014, the Governor is pleased to prescribe the following procedure to be adopted for deposit of EMD/ Bid Security related to e- procurement of the State Government Departments and its subordinate offices, PSUs, Autonomous and Local Bodies, PRIs, etc

1. Login by bidder:

a) A bidder desirous of taking part in a tender invited by a State Government Office/PSU/Autonomous Body/Local Body/ PRIs, etc shall login to the e-Procurement portal of the Government of West Bengal https://wbtenders.gov.in/ using his login ID and password.

b) He will select the tender to bid and initiate payment of pre-defined EMD/ Tender Fees for that tender by selecting from either of the following payments modes:

i) Net banking (any of the banks listed in the ICICI Bank Payment gateway) in case of payment through ICICI Bank Payment Gateway;

ii) RTGS/NEFT in case of offline payment through bank account in any Bank.

2. Payment procedure:

a) Payment by Net Banking (any listed bank) through ICICI Bank Payment Gateway:

i. On selection of net banking as the payment mode, the bidder will be directed to ICICI Bank Payment Gateway webpage (along with a string containing a Unique ID) where he will select the Bank through which he wants to do the transaction.

ii. Bidder will make the payment after entering his Unique ID and password of the bank to process the transaction.

iii. Bidder will receive a confirmation message regarding success/failure of the transaction.

iv. If the transaction is successful, the amount paid by the bidder will get credited in the respective Pooling account of the State Government /PSU/Autonomous Body/Local Body/PRIs, etc maintained with the Focal Point Branch of ICICI Bank at R.N. Mukherjee Road, Kolkata for collection of EMD/Tender Fees.

v. If the transaction is failure, the bidder will again try for payment by going back to the first step.

b) Payment through RTGS/NEFT:

i. On selection of RTGS/NEFT as the payment mode, the e-Procurement portal will show a pre-filled challan having the details to process RTGS/NEFT transaction.

ii. The bidder will print the challan and use the pre-filled information to make RTGS/NEFT payment using his Bank account.

iii. Once payment is made, the bidder will come back to the e-Procurement portal after expiry of a reasonable time to enable the NEFT/RTGS process to complete, in order to verify the payment made and continue the bidding process.

iv. If verification is successful, the fund will get credited to the respective Pooling account of the State Government /PSU/Autonomous Body/Local Body/PRIs, etc maintained with the Focal Point Branch of ICICI Bank at R.N. Mukherjee Road, Koikata for collection of EMD/Tender Fees.

v. Hereafter, the bidder will go to e-Procurement portal for submission of his bid.

vi. But if the payment verification is unsuccessful, the amount will be returned to the bidder’s account.

3. Refund/ Settlement Process:

i. After opening of the bids and technical evaluation of the same by the tender inviting authority through electronic processing in the e-Procurement portal of the State Government, the tender inviting authority will declare the status of the bids as successful or unsuccessful which will be made available, along with the details of the unsuccessful bidders, to ICICI Bank by the e-Procurement portal through web services.

ii. On receipt of the information from the e-Procurement portal, the Bank will refund, through an automated process, the EMD of the bidders disqualified at the technical evaluation to the respective bidders’ bank accounts from which they made the payment transaction. Such refund will take place within T+2 Bank Working Days where T will mean the date on which information on rejection of bid is uploaded to the e-Procurement portal by the tender inviting authority.

iii. Once the financial bid evaluation is electronically processed in the e-Procurement portal, EMD of the technically qualified bidders other than that of the L1 and L2 bidders will be refunded, through an automated process, to the respective bidders’ bank accounts from which they made the payment transaction. Such refund will take place within T+2 Bank Working Days where T wili mean the date on which information on rejection of financial bid is uploaded to the e-Procurement portal by the tender inviting authority. However, the L2 bidder should not be rejected till the LOI process is successful.

iv. If the L1 bidder accepts the LOI and the same is processed electronically in the e-Procurement portal, EMD of the L2 bidder will be refunded through an automated process, to his bank account from which he made the payment transaction. Such refund will take place within T+2 Bank Working Days where T will mean the date on which information on Award of Contract (AOC) to the L1 bidder is uploaded to the e-Procurement portal by the tender inviting authority.

v. As soon as the L1 bidder is awarded the contract (AOC) and the same is processed electronically in the e-Procurement portal-

a) EMD of the L1 bidder for tenders of State Government offices will automatically get transferred from the pooling account to the State Government deposit head “8443-00-103-001-07” through GRIPS along with the bank particulars of the L1 bidder,

b) EMD of the L1 bidder for tenders of the State PSUs/Autonomous Bodies/Local Bodies/PRIs, etc will automatically get transferred from the pooling account to their respective linked bank accounts along with the bank particulars of the L1 bidder.

In both the above cases, such transfer will take place within T+1 Bank Working Days where T will mean the date on which the Award of Contract (AOC) is issued.

vi. The Bank will share the details of the GRN No. generated on successful entry in GRIPS with the E-Procurement portal for updation.

vii. Once the EMD of the L1 bidder is transferred in the manner mentioned above, Tender fees, if any, deposited by the bidders will be transferred electronically from the pooling account to the Government revenue receipt head “0070-60-800-013-27” through GRIPS for Government tenders and to the respective linked bank accounts for State PSU/Autonomous Body/Local Body/PRIs, etc tenders.

viii. AN refunds will be made mandatorily to the Bank A/c from which the payment of EMD & Tender Fees (if any ) were initiated.

4. Accounting and Monitoring Process:

i. The ICICI Internet Banking will communicate to the State Government e-Procurement portal all details of transactions on daily basis.

ii. The Tender Inviting Authority of the Government Offices/PSUs/ Autonomous Bodies/Local Bodies/PRIs, etc will be using their respective e-procurement User ID and Password to view the EMD and Tender Fees deposited by the bidders in the pooling accounts.

iii. The nodal officer of the Finance Department, Government of West Bengal will be able to view the Department-wise EMD and Tender Fees deposited by the bidders to the pooling accounts and fund transferred downstream at various stages of the tender process to the Government accounts and bidders’ accounts, as applicable by using user access as provided by NIC.

iv. The details of NIC E-Procurement Help Desk and toll free numbers of ICICI Bank are given in annexure.

The system will become effective from 01/08/2016 and can be used by any Government Offices/PSUs/Autonomous Bodies/Local Bodies/PRIs, etc. with effect from that date. However, with effect from 01/09/2016, all the EMD/Tender fees in respect of e-tender of all. State Government Offices/PSUs/Autonomous Bodies/Local Bodies/PRIs, etc will mandatorily be received and refunds/settlements made as per the procedure stated above.

Sd/- P A Siddiqui
Secretary to the
Government of West Bengal
Finance Department

No. 3975-F dated 28.07.2016, Source