The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has taken serious note of government agencies issuing tenders in August this year with short bid submission timelines, clearly intended to circumvent the Approved List of Models and Manufacturers (ALMM) mandate on solar cells.

It stated that any existing tenders with short bidding timelines that have been issued without complying with the General Financial Rules and Central Vigilance Commission regulations must be scrapped, if necessary, and new bids issued in full compliance with the rules.

“Action taken in this regard may be reported back positively within 15 days,” MNRE said in a communication to renewable energy bidding agencies of the Union and state governments.

MNRE said that some of the agencies had issued tenders in August this year with bid submission deadlines as short as seven days.

It stated that all renewable energy implementing agencies, public sector organizations, and other government agencies must strictly adhere to the rules and regulations issued by the Ministry of Finance and the Central Vigilance Commission in matters related to public procurement, to maintain financial propriety and transparency.

The ALMM List-II for solar cells will take effect on June 1, 2026.

The haste with which some agencies issued tenders with short bidding timelines appears to be an attempt to beat the September 1, 2025, cut-off date for government projects to comply with the solar cells mandate.

In July, MNRE exempted government projects mandated to use solar modules from the ALMM List-I for solar modules from complying with ALMM List-II for solar cells, if the bid submission deadline is on or before the cut-off date. It specified that the cut-off date will be one month after the publication of the first ALMM List for cells.

The first ALMM List-II was released on August 1, effectively making September 1 the cut-off date for bid submissions.

The government’s intention behind issuing the ALMM mandates is to promote domestic manufacturing of solar cells and modules. The cumulative manufacturing capacity of modules under the ALMM stands at 109.54 GW, and that of cells is 17.88 GW.