Bids fail at technical scrutiny for dull reasons. A non-conviction certificate seven months old where the tender asked for six. A turnover certificate signed by the finance head instead of the statutory auditor. A market standing certificate for the company when the clause asked for the product. A drug licence that covers the molecule but not the strength quoted. None of these are quality problems and none of them are curable after the bid closes. Here they are in the order a tender document raises them.
The rejections that happen before your price is opened
Bid security is the first filter and the bluntest. Tender documents put it without qualification: a tender submitted without earnest money deposit, unless exempted by a government order, is summarily rejected. Two details do the damage. The EMD has to stay valid well past bid opening — one Delhi central procurement document requires validity for 210 days from initial opening — and exemption for a micro or small enterprise has to be evidenced with the certificate, not asserted in a covering letter.
The second filter is the wording of your own offer. Cross conditions are grounds for summary rejection in every document reviewed here: “subject to availability”, “at current market rates”, or quoting a different strength, specification or unit from the one tendered. A bid that offers 500 mg against a 250 mg line is not a competitive bid. It is a rejected one.
Blacklisting and debarment sit here too. Firms currently blacklisted, debarred or deregistered for forgery, misrepresentation or supply of not-of-standard-quality product are excluded outright, and at least one corporation also excludes firms disqualified at factory inspection until a re-inspection fee has been paid.
Market standing is per product, not per company
This is the clause that removes the most technically capable bidders. Kerala requires at least three years market standing as a manufacturer or importer for each drug quoted, and at least three commercial batches manufactured and supplied within those three years. The Bengaluru tender asks for a market standing certificate issued by a chartered accountant for three named financial years.
Note that the issuing authority differs between tenders — some want the licensing authority, some want a chartered accountant — and the two are not substitutes. Submitting the wrong one is the same as submitting none.
The uncomfortable part is that this document certifies history and cannot be arranged. A plant with twenty years of standing has none at all for a molecule it started making last year, and no amount of preparation produces the certificate. Decide what you can quote line by line before you decide whether to bid at all.
Non-conviction, product permission, and the licence valid on the day
The non-conviction requirement is stated three different ways in three documents, and the differences matter. Delhi requires a certificate issued within 12 months of the bid closing date, for both the manufacturer or importer and the distributor. Bengaluru asks for one not more than six months old. Kerala’s wording is wider than either: the bidder must not be convicted under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act or the other laws the department administers, and no prosecution action may be in progress or pending. A firm with a clean conviction record but a live prosecution fails Kerala’s clause and passes a narrower one.
These are issued by the state or central drugs control authority and there is a real lead time. Date the application to the tender calendar, not to the financial year.
Product permission is the other half. Bidders must hold a valid manufacturing licence for the items quoted and a product permit approved by the licensing authority, with the licence duly renewed and valid on the date of tender opening. Read that at strength and pack level. An endorsement covering a molecule in one strength does not cover the other strength on the same line item, and this is a common and entirely avoidable rejection.
GMP, GST and the affidavit
The GMP requirement changed under everyone’s feet and has now settled. Revised Schedule M took effect on 1 January 2025. G.S.R. 10(E) of 4 January 2025 gave manufacturers with turnover of Rs 250 crore or less until 31 December 2025, conditional on applying to the Central Licence Approving Authority in Form A with an upgradation plan. In November 2025 the Drugs Controller General directed state regulators to begin inspections and report monthly. That extension window has closed. Tenders now routinely ask for a valid Revised Schedule M GMP certificate or a WHO-GMP certificate issued by the licensing authority, and the certificate has to name the section of the plant that makes the item.
GST is simpler and still gets missed. Expect to upload the registration certificate with PAN, plus GST returns for a specifically named period — the Bengaluru document asks for returns from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025 — along with income tax filings and the balance sheet and profit and loss account for three preceding years.
The affidavit is last in the document and last in most bidders’ priorities. It must be notarised, on stamp paper of the stated value (Rs 100 is the common figure), and drafted in the tender’s own proforma — an annexure, not a letter. A well-written declaration on your letterhead saying the same thing is a rejected declaration.
The checklist, in tender order
1. Tender processing fee and EMD — amount, instrument, and how long past bid opening it must remain valid.
2. MSME or NSIC exemption certificate — attached, current, and in the bidder’s own name.
3. Turnover certificate — from a chartered accountant or statutory auditor, for the exact financial years named.
4. Audited balance sheet and profit and loss account — for the same years, attached separately.
5. Confirmation that group turnover is not being claimed — where the tender excludes it.
6. Market standing certificate — per product quoted, from the issuing authority the tender names.
7. Evidence of commercial batches supplied — where the tender sets a minimum number.
8. Manufacturing licence — notarised, renewed, valid on the tender opening date.
9. Product permission — matching molecule, strength, dosage form and pack of every line quoted.
10. GMP certificate — Revised Schedule M or WHO-GMP as specified, naming the relevant section.
11. Non-conviction certificate — issued within the stated window, covering distributor as well as manufacturer where required.
12. GST registration and PAN, plus GST returns for the named period.
13. Income tax returns for the stated years.
14. Non-blacklisting affidavit — notarised, correct stamp value, tender’s own proforma.
15. Every page signed and stamped, uploaded in the correct cover, with the digital signature of the authorised signatory named in the power of attorney.
Items 6, 9 and 11 account for most avoidable rejections. Items 1 and 15 account for most of the rest.
How Salus approaches this
Salus Pharmaceuticals has manufactured formulations at its WHO-GMP and ISO 9001:2015 certified facility in Baddi, Himachal Pradesh since 2005, across more than 21 therapeutic categories. Tender documents are checked against the eligibility annexure line by line before pricing, and where a per-product document — market standing, or a product permission that does not extend to a quoted strength — cannot be produced, we say so rather than submitting a bid that will be opened and set aside.
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