Section 14 in Rajasthan Minor Mineral Concession Rules, 2017
14. Electronic auction and bidding process of mineral concession.
(1)The Government may utilize any online electronic platform which meets the minimum technical and security requirements as specified in the guidelines for compliance to quality requirements of e-procurement systems issued by the Standardization Testing and Quality Certification Directorate, Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Government of India. For this purpose Government may appoint any agency as service provider for conducting e-auction.(2)Mining Engineer or Assistant Mining Engineer concerned shall provide the details of mineral blocks to be auctioned along with particulars of area classified into forests land, land owned by the Government and private persons, terms and conditions to the Directorate, Department of Mines and Geology, Udaipur for conducting e-auction.(3)A centralized bidding cell at Directorate shall publish notice inviting bid for e-auction in two daily news papers, at least one of which is state level having circulation of fifty thousand copies and above and other having wide publicity in the area where lease or licence is being granted.The notice inviting bid shall also be compulsorily displayed on the notice boards of the Directorate and office of the Mining Engineer or Assistant Mining Engineer concerned. The notice inviting bid shall be published at least thirty days before the date fixed for submission of the bid and shall upload particulars, terms and conditions on the web portal of the department and agency appointed by the Government. The period of thirty days shall be counted from the publication of the notice inviting bid on the departmental website or on the website of the agency appointed for auction, whichever earlier. The registered bidders shall also be intimated by the authorized agency through e-mail.(4)Notice inviting bid shall contain brief particulars regarding the area under auction, including, -(i)particulars of area classified into forests land, land owned by the Government and private persons; and(ii)if area under auction contains land owned by the private persons, specifying the condition of right of first refusal to such [khatedars] [Substituted 'landowners' Notification No. G.S.R. 57, dated 25.6.2018 (w.e.f. 28.2.2017).].(5)Intending bidders shall get registered with the agency appointed for auction as prospective bidder for participating in e-auction. The registration shall always open for all prospective bidders to get registered with the e-auction service provider and shall be one time. After registration, prospective bidder shall be eligible for participating in e-auction conducted by the department for grant of mineral concession and contracts.(6)Bidders shall carefully read guidelines mentioned in rule 15 before submitting bids.(7)The Government, its employees and advisers make no representation or warranty and shall have no liability to any person, including any bidder under any law, statute, rules or regulations or tort, principles of restitution or unjust enrichment or otherwise for any loss, damages, cost or expenses which may arise from or be incurred or suffered on account of any information or data or arising in any way from participation in the auction process.(8)The e-auction shall be an ascending forward online electronic auction and shall comprise of the following rounds, namely: -(i)First round of auction shall be held in following manner, namely: -(a)A technical bid shall be submitted by the bidder along with: -(I)A scanned copy of bid letter in Form -3;(II)Bid security as specified in rule 18;(III)An initial price offer which shall be equal to or above the reserve price;(IV)A scanned copy of affidavit regarding no-dues of the department;(V)A scanned copy of no-dues certificate from the Mining Engineer or Assistant Mining Engineer concerned where the bidder holds or had held mineral concession or royalty collection contract or excess royalty collection contract;Provided that affidavit and no-dues certificate in case of firm, company or association of persons have to be submitted by all the partners, directors or persons, as the case may be.(VI)A scanned copy of Memorandum of Association and Articles of Association, certificate of incorporation in case bidder is a company or partnership deed and firm registration certificate in case bidder is a firm, as the case may be;(VII)A scanned copy of power of attorney in format as specified in Form -4 or resolution of board of directors in favour of person submitting bid in case of a firm or company, as the case may be;(VIII)A scanned copy of PAN card or TIN;(IX)A scanned copy of address proof;(X)A scanned copy of balance sheet certified by the chartered accountant or income tax returns of preceding financial year; and(XI)E-mail address and mobile number;(b)Failure to comply with the provisions of clause (a) for whatsoever reason, shall lead to non-admission of technical bid;(c)The bids shall be opened by the following committee: -(I)Additional Director Mines (HQ);(II)Financial Adviser; and(III)Superintending Mining Engineer (HQ-II or III) concerned;The final decision on recommendations of the committee shall be taken by the Director;(d)Evaluation report of technical bids shall be prepared and shall be informed to all the bidders individually through e-mail or SMS. Initial price offer of all technically qualified bidders shall be opened by the committee mentioned in clause (c) on the schedule date of e-auction;(e)The technically qualified bidders shall be ranked on the basis of the descending initial price offer submitted by them and the technically qualified bidder holding the first fifty percent of the ranks (with any fraction rounded off to higher integer) or the top five technically qualified bidder, whichever is higher, shall qualify as qualified bidder for participating in the second round of electronic auction:Provided that where the total number of technically qualified bidder is less than two, then no technically qualified bidder shall be considered to be qualified bidder and the auction process shall be annulled.Provided further that if the number of technically qualified bidders is between two and five, then all the technically qualified bidders, both inclusive, shall be considered as qualified bidders.Provided also that in the event of identical initial price offers being submitted by two or more technically qualified bidders, all such technically qualified bidders shall be assigned the same rank for the purpose of determination of qualified bidders and in such case, the aforementioned fifty percent shall stand enhanced to fifty percent plus the number of technically qualified bidders whose initial price offers are identical less the number of such identical initial price offers.Explanation: - In the event there are a total of ten technically qualified bidders and each technically qualified bidder submits different initial price offer, then the technically qualified bidders holding the first fifty percent of ranks shall be considered to be qualified bidders. If three such technically qualified bidders submit the same initial price offer and are ranked in first fifty percent of total number of ranks, then, all the three technically qualified bidders shall be considered to be qualified bidders and the total number of qualified bidders shall stand increase by two.(f)Qualified bidders shall be intimated about their qualification for electronic auction against specific items in accordance with the terms and conditions of the bid, through notice on the web site of agency appointed for auction through their secured login as well a system generated e-mail; and(g)The highest initial price offer amongst the qualified bidders shall be the floor price for the second round of online electronic auction and all the qualified bidders shall participate in the second round of electronic auction:Provided that where the total number of technically qualified bidders is less than two, then no technically qualified bidders shall be considered to be qualified bidder and the auction process shall be annulled.Provided further that the Director may, in its discretion, decide not to annul the auction process if even second or subsequent attempt the total number of technically qualified bidders continues to be less than two and the Director in such case, decide to consider technically qualified bidder as qualified bidder so as to continue with the bidding process.(ii)Second round of e-auction shall be held in following manner, namely: -(a)The qualified bidders may submit their final price offer exclusive all taxes and duties which shall not be less than the floor price. The bidder will have the sole responsibility to make payment of all applicable taxes and duties to the authorities concern directly and produce the proof of the same to the department:Provided that the final price offer may be revised till the conclusion of the auction as per notice inviting bid.(b)The date, time and period of e-auction shall be as per the schedule mentioned in notice inviting bid. However the closing time of e-auction shall be automatically extended in the event a bid is received during the last eight minutes before the scheduled closing time of electronic auction. The closing time of electronic auction will be automatically extended by eight minutes from the last received bid time to give equal opportunity to all other qualified bidders.This process of auto extension will continue till the last highest bid remains unimproved for a period of eight minutes;(c)The successful bidder shall be decided by the system solely on the basis of highest financial bid submitted by the qualified bidders. No negotiation shall be conducted with any bidder;(d)The auction process shall be annulled if none of qualified bidders submit a final price offer on online electronic auction platform. In case the e-auction process is annulled due to non submission of at least one final price offer on the electronic auction platform, the bid security of the qualified bidder who has submitted the highest initial price offer i.e. the applicable floor price for the second round of e-auction, shall be forfeited;(e)On close of e-auction, the highest bidder shall be declared as successful bidder and thereafter bid sheet indicating the name of the successful bidder and bid price etc. shall be made available by the agency through e-mail within twenty four hours. The bid sheet may be downloaded through Management Information System (MIS) reports:Provided that where area auctioned contains private land, the highest bidder shall be declared as successful bidder only on submission of registered consent deed from landowners within a period of sixty days and if highest bidder fails to submit registered consent deed from such landowners, he shall not be declared as successful bidder.(f)If area auctioned contains private land, upon conclusion of the second round of e-auction, the Mining Engineer or Assistant Mining Engineer concerned shall issue a notice to the landowner seeking written confirmation of their willingness to exercise the right of first refusal within a period of seven days of the conclusion of the second round of e-auction;(g)The notice given under clause (f) to this sub-rule shall be acknowledged by the landowner and who shall, within a period of sixty days of receipt of notice, exercise the right of first refusal in writing to the Mining Engineer or Assistant Mining Engineer concerned, failing which it shall be construed that the landowner is not desirous of exercising the right of first refusal;(h)If the landowner exercises the right of first refusal, matches the highest final offer price and deposits all other applicable payments, the landowner shall be deemed to be the successful bidder and shall be entitled to a mining lease in the manner provided in these rules. In such case, bid security paid by the erstwhile highest bidder shall be refunded:Provided that where landowners do not exercise the right of first refusal or highest bidder fails to submit registered consent deed of the landowners, the auction process shall be annulled; and(i)On deposition of performance security by the successful bidder, bid security of the successful bidder shall be refunded by the agency appointed for auction within seventy two hours.(9)Bid submitted by the bidders shall be valid for ninety days. A bid valid for shorter period may be considered as non responsive. Prior to the expiry of the period of validity of bids, the Director, in exceptional circumstances, may request the bidders to extend the bid validity period for an additional specified period of time. A bidder may refuse the request and such refusal shall be treated as withdrawal of bid but in such circumstances bid security deposited shall not be forfeited.(10)After declaration of successful bidder, the successful bidder shall deposit the first installment being twenty five percent of the minimum guaranteed premium within fifteen days of completion of auction process and the Mining Engineer or Assistant Mining Engineer concerned shall send proposal to the competent authority.(11)If successful bidder fails to deposit the first installment mentioned in sub-rule (10), bid security deposited shall be forfeited and shall be debarred for five years in participating in further e-auction. In such case, a counter offer shall be given to the second highest bidder (H2), third highest bidder(H3) etc. in serial order to match the highest bid submitted by the successful bidder. In this process, no negotiation shall be done.(12)Bid security of the un-successful bidders shall be refunded by the agency appointed for auction, to the bidders concerned after deposition of first installment of premium amount by the successful bidder.
