State-owned NTPC Ltd’s refusal to exempt small and medium enterprises from earnest money deposits for its solar power tenders has riled an association of solar energy industry which has now petitioned the government seeking its intervention.
The National Solar Energy Federation of India – an umbrella organisation representing solar energy companies – on January 7 wrote to Nitin Gadkari, minister for micro, small and medium enterprises, seeking his intervention in issuing a direction to NTPC to abide with the government policy of not seeking tender fee from MSMEs as well as exempting them from payment of earnest money deposit.
It said NTPC is not exempting MSMEs from payment of earnest money for bidding for its engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) tender for 923 MW solar projects, costing an estimated ₹5,000 crore.
