Islamabad: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has warned Megaplus, one of the largest and oldest Dell authorized distributors in Pakistan, to blacklist its proceedings on failure to supply 4,300 desktop computers.
According to Profit’s sources, FBR has written a second letter to Megaplus with regard to supplying 4,300 desktop computers.
A year ago in April 2022, Megaplus successfully won the bid for supplying 4,300 computer systems worth Rs 902 million. The delivery of equipment was supposed to have been completed within 18-20 weeks after issuance of the purchase order but it has still not been made. Sources further said that Megaplus has neither provided a delivery schedule nor submitted a performance guarantee. It also must be mentioned that CEO of Megaplus, Asim Bukhari, personally met with a member of IT department in FBR on Dec 26, 2022 and assured delivery of desktop computers
Last month FBR directed the company to furnish a delivery schedule and submit a performance guarantee latest by Feb 21, 2023 and warned of blacklisting the proceedings if the deadline is not met, in accordance with Rule 18 of PPRA Rules 2004.
Profit also learned in a letter dated December 21, 2022, Megaplus reaffirmed that it intends to fulfill all its legal obligations under the contract and also promised to submit a performance guarantee.
Amidst this, competitor Lenovo has already finished production of 4,300 desktops for FBR which are ready for pickup from their UAE warehouse.
Court case
Recently, Megaplus has also filed a petition in court to stop FBR from taking any adverse action including encashment of securities, blacklisting breach etc. The company also requested the court to grant a decision in its favor for the termination of the contract of the order of 4,300 computer systems.
Megaplus believes that due to the non-issuance of Letter of Credit by the state bank, timely execution of contract could not be done. Therefore, carrying the contract ahead would cause huge financial losses to the company.
The company also added that in accordance with Public Procurement Rules 2004 it had submitted a bank guarantee of Rs 58,000 on a bid security of Rs 11,580,000 on August 8, 2022, and requested the amount to be reimbursed.
