The Pre-Bid Meeting for the captioned tender was held on August 04, 2025 at 03:00 PM at RBI, New Delhi. The meeting was attended by representatives from 06 Chartered Accounted (CA) Firms. The list of officials from RBI, New Delhi and representatives from CA firms who participated in the meeting is enclosed in the Annexure to this document.
2. The meeting started with a brief introduction of the e-tender and scope of work. Thereafter, following queries were raised by the representatives of the firms, which were clarified by the Bank:
| Sr. No. | Query | Clarification by the Bank |
| 1 | Are MSME firms exempted from depositing EMD? | No. It was informed that the exemption for MSME firms from depositing EMD, is for procurement of works (goods, services and work contract) estimated to cost up to Rs.10 lakh only.
Please refer to point no. 28 of Terms & Conditions on page no. 30 of the Tender Document. |
| 2 | Whether monthly audit report submission, as indicated para (a) under the reporting requirements, should be done manually or online?
| Submission of monthly audit report is to be done on RBI’s internal portal (Online). |
| 3. | Is it required to upload supporting documents viz., prior experience, letters for assignments of Concurrent Audits, Statutory Audits, qualifications of partners etc., along with the bids? | Yes. It was clarified that the applicants should submit their bid, as per the instructions regarding E-Tender, along with all supporting documents complete in all respects as per the prescribed format on or before 12:00 PM on August 12, 2025.
All the prequalification papers should be uploaded on MSTC site. Please refer to the Schedule of Tender (SOT) of the e-Tender. |
| 4 | What is the size limit for files that may be uploaded on MSTC site during submission of Technical Bid. | Please refer to the Vendor Guide and FAQ available at MSTC website.
As per the vendor guide available on MSTC website, the size of individual files should be less than 5 MB. However, multiple files can be uploaded. |
| 5 | (i) Whether the tender document has to be signed and stamped on all the pages. | It was clarified that the specified forms and the required supporting documents submitted by the vendor has to be signed and stamped mandatorily.
Further, it was clarified that this is an e-tender and bids along with supporting signed documents have to be submitted only through MSTC. |
| 6 | Whether this is an open tender / Who all are eligible to participate in this bid? | No, this is a limited tender. Please refer to Notice Inviting Tender on page no. 3. |
| 7 | -
Can a firm deploy Ex- Banker staff in place of a chartered Accountant as required by Terms and conditions of the tender documents? -
Is there any relaxation possible in the qualifications (as required in the tender document) for the skilled staff. | No. Please refer to point no. 10 of Terms & Conditions on page no. 26 of the Tender Document.
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| 8 | Whether the firm has to submit documentary evidence for showing their experience in bank audits? | Yes. |
| 9 | -
Can a CA be replaced at any point of time. -
Can multiple articles be replaced simultaneously. | -
Yes, subject to point no. 12 of the Terms & Conditions, on page no. 27 of the Tender Document. -
It was clarified that, under all circumstances, it should be ensured that each of the members are deployed in the Bank on a continuous basis. In normal course, the team deployed by the firm should not be shuffled, but only under extreme exigencies, in staggered manner with minimum gap of one (01) month. |
| 10 | -
Whether the work needs to be done in own laptops or the bank will provide desktops to work. -
How the data sharing will be done. | -
06 desktops will also be provided by the office. -
Data sharing can be done through mail. |
| 11. | i) Please clarify the nature of documentary evidence in support of Average Annual Turnover as per the requirement of S.No. 21 of Form-1: Application for appointment as Concurrent Auditor: Technical Bid Form.
ii) Can we submit a CA Certificate as Supporting documents for such a requirement? | -
It was clarified that a format will be provided. (Format: Financial Status given at the end)
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Yes |
| 12 | -
Is any supporting documents required in support of experience of the CA firm in bank audits as Concurrent Auditors /Statutory Central/ Branch Auditor as per S.No 23. of Form-1: Application for appointment as Concurrent Auditor: Technical Bid Form. -
if yes to what extent in terms of no of Years? | i) Yes
ii) Please refer to Sr. no. 07 of the Revised Template for Technical Evaluation. |
| 13 | Can you please share the details of the previous concurrent auditors? | No. |
| 14 | Can a firm deploy a non-article experienced paid staff as skilled staff in place of requirement of staff qualified in Group 2 of the CA Intermediate or Group II of IPCC (Integrated Professional Competence Course as requirement of Terms and conditions of the tender documents? | No. Please refer to point no. 10 of Terms & Conditions on page no. 26 of the Tender Document. |
| 15 | The Concurrent Auditor shall assist Bank’s staff in determination of all statutory taxes and returns thereof. The firm will prepare and file GST/ Income tax returns of the Bank (and also any other related returns which may come in force subsequently) at the designated intervals. Concurrent Auditors to handle TDS / GST notices received (if any) from Income Tax Department /GST Authorities. The firm will also provide professional guidance on matters related to Input Tax Credit on GST and ensure and certify accuracy of the data. -
Tentative count of such notices. -
Will it include representation before CIT/ appellate authorities/ drafting of appeals etc. -
Professional guidance will include providing opinions also? | -
Cannot be determined -
No. However, professional guidance can be sought. -
Yes Please refer to point no. ‘m’ of Scope of work on page no. 17 of the Tender Document. |
| 16 | The firm / CA shall ensure that the qualification of Article clerks engaged is as per latest ICAI guidelines and that the engaged Article clerks continue with the present assignment for at least six months.
The firm enquired that is it mandatory, as the continuation of the article will depend upon the period of his or her article ship. | Please refer to point no. 11 and 12 of Terms & Conditions on page no. 27 of the Tender Document. |
| 17 | Will EMD submitted by ineligible firms be refunded before the decided day and time? | No. |
| 18. | Is there any criteria, based on which firms have been shortlisted or only the firms whose Head office is in Delhi are eligible and invited? | It was clarified that this is a limited tender. Please refer to Notice Inviting Tender on page no. 3. |
| 19. | In the Annex-I; Technical evaluation form, para-No. 3 mentions that for “Association of Full Time CA partners with the firm - Number of Partners” there will be “One point (1.0) for each Full-Time CA partner associated with the firm for more than five years and upto seven years. One and half point (1.5) for each FullTime CA partner associated with the firm for more than seven years and upto ten years. Two points (2.0) for each Full-Time CA partner associated with the firm for more than ten years”. In this connection, we need to seek clarification, what if the partner was in service for 10 years and then left the firm and joined again 3 years ago after a gap of year or two. Will the years be considered as 13 years or only 3 years? | In this case, only three years will be considered for the purpose of technical evaluation. |
| 20. | Does a full time CA partner having different qualifications makes him eligible for separate scoring for each qualification? | Please refer to the “Remarks” column in the Annex-I; Technical evaluation form, para-No.10. |
| 21. | In the Annex-I; Technical evaluation form, para-No. 5 prescribes different annual turnover scoring for metro cities and for other places. -
Does that not put a firm operating in the metro cities in a disadvantageous position vis a vis a firm operating in non-metro centres. -
Why this criterion has been kept in technical evaluation when the Tender Notice invites tender from Category 1 CA firms registered with ICAI for Delhi State? |
(i) Differentiated approach for the firms having head office in metro cities and other places is to provide level playing field.
(ii) The evaluation methodology consists of two-stage process – technical and financial evaluation. The criteria for technical evaluation are uniformly applicable across all RBI offices situated in different parts of the country. |
| 22. | In Terms and Conditions para 12. It is mentioned that
“The staff as indicated in point 06 has to be present on all working days of RBI and observe the working hours of RBI”. | It was clarified that the same may be read as
“The staff as indicated in point 10 has to be present on all working days of RBI and observe the working hours of RBI”. |