PLANNING OF NON-STOCK ITEMS AND PROCESSING OF REQUISITION

4.1.0 Instructions for making requisition of Non-Stock Items :

Non-Stock items are generally those items which do not have regular turn over. Planning of such items by Stores Department is difficult and therefore user departments plan for these items on the basis of various estimates for works and their programs for repairs and maintenance. As purchase always takes some time, advance planning even for non-stock items is also called for.

4.1.1 After working out the requirements, user departments submit those requirements to their feeding stores depot on requisition form No.S 1302. This requisition should be prepared on the basis of "one item on one form" in duplicate. One copy will be retained by the Indenting officer as his office copy and the other copy will be submitted to the feeding Stores Depot through the officer competent to sanction the requirements.

• As per present delegation, requirements up to Rs. 2000/- can be signed by Assistant Officers and Sr. Scale Officers.
• The requirements valuing between Rs. 2,000/- to Rs. 1 lakh are sanctioned only by a JA grade officer (On some Railways JA grade officers are delegated these powers up to Rs. 50,000/- only).
• Depending upon extent delegation, requirements between Rs. 1 lakh to Rs.5 lakhs can be sanctioned by ADRM/SA grade officer of the Department .
• All requirements above Rs. 5 lakhs may be sanctioned by either DRM or Principal Head of the Department. However, these delegations may vary from Railway to Railway.

4.1.2 Important points to be kept in mind at the time of preparation and submission of requisitions for non-stock items :

(a) As far as possible attempts should be made to draw standard stock items from Stores Dept. If the standard stock items cannot meet the requirements, then the quantity of non-stock items to be requisitioned should be assessed realistically, keeping Canons of Financial Propriety in mind. Many times there is temptation to over-indent the quantity and ultimately excess quantity may lie in Stores without any use.

(b) Description of items should be clear and detailed. As the user is not going himself to purchase the material from the market, he should examine the description as a manufacturer or Inspecting officer and should visualize whether he will be able to make or inspect the material on the basis of given description as per user requirement. For this, purpose all the dimensions with necessary tolerances should be clearly specified. There should be standard specifications for all the raw materials and components used for manufacturing the product and also process of manufacturing and various types of treatments and finishes should be clearly specified. All these details are generally given in standard specifications.

• In our country Bureau of Indian Standards have standardized specifications for most of the products. These specifications are known as Indian Standard Specifications (ISS). If the products to these specifications can meet our requirements we shall always prefer goods to these specifications. 
• If materials to IS specifications are unable to meet our requirement we may think of going for some higher specifications such as

                British Standard (BS), 

                American Society of Testing Materials (ASTM) etc.

• For some of the Railway items, RDSO have made the specifications which are known as Indian Railway Standards (IRS) Specifications. 
• If our requirements can not be specified by any of these specifications we should try to make our own specifications. 
• For some of the aspects of the materials for which it is difficult to make specifications, samples can be sent along with the requisition to guide the purchases. Giving clear, unambiguous and detailed description in the requisitions is  very important and many times purchase is delayed and complicated because description given by the indentor is not complete. 
• In many cases user may receive the material matching to the description given by him in the requisition, but he may find the material not to his requirement and this may be due to flaw in the description or specification provided by him. Some times specification itself classify the particular material in various grades and if the grade is not specified in the description, supplier may try to supply the cheapest possible grade which may not serve the purpose of user. 
• If the item being indented is not as per Standard Specifications (IRS or IS) and the Indenting Officer has made his own specification or drawing, then he should send sufficient copies (about 10-12) of these specifications or drawings so that the same may be sent to all the likely suppliers at the time of issue of tenders. 
• If the P.L.No. has been allotted for the items, it should invariably be mentioned in the requisition.

(c) Head of allocation to which the expenditure is to be charged, should be clearly indicated.

(b)If the same material was received by the indentor in the past, then he should invariably indicate the last purchase particulars. For non-stock items generally, no history is maintained by Stores Dept. and therefore, if last purchase particulars are indicated by the indentor it becomes easy to link the last purchase case in purchase office which may give guidance for finding likely supplier etc. If the purchase is being made for the first time and if indentor knows some of the likely suppliers, he should give list of those suppliers.

(e) As mentioned in para 4.1.1, for procurement of the non-stock requirements, administrative approval of competent authority is required. This approval is based upon the value of purchase which can be assessed only when rate is known. Therefore, assessment of rate for non- stock items is the basic requirement which is to be met by the user. The rate should, however, be assessed realistically and there should not be any deliberate attempt to assess the rate on lower side to either avoid finance concurrence or administrative approval at a particular level, following points should be kept in mind :

i) If the rate is assessed based on the last purchase rate, then due allowance should be provided for inflation. For this inquiries can be made from the market or in absence of any data, inflation at the rate of 6 to 10% per year may be allowed, depending upon the nature of the item and a remark to this effect may be given in the requisition.

ii) In the rate, various taxes such as Excise duty, Sales Tax, Octroi and extras such as packing and forwarding charges and freight should also be taken into account.

iii) If the item is being indented for the first time, attempt should be made to inquire the rate from the market.

iv) In absence of any information, rate can be worked out by doing a cost analysis and details of cost analysis may be enclosed along with the requisition.

f) Availability of the funds should be clearly certified.

g) All requisitions where estimated value of purchase is going to be more than Rs. 40,000/- should be vetted by the associated finance of the indenting officer.

h) All requisitions where estimated value of purchase is going to be more than Rs.2000/- should be signed by a JA grade officer.

i) The date by which the material is required should be clearly indicated. This date should normally be 6/8 months after date of submission of indent to Stores department, If, the item is required urgently, then full justification should be provided and concerned purchase officer should be addressed demi-officially to arrange the material on out of turn priority.

j) Demand for the items which are required to be purchased from a single source only should be accompanied with a certificate known as Proprietary Article Certificate (PAC) or with an adequate justification for purchase on single tender basis. PAC is to be signed by the officers of user departments as under.

4.2.0 Processing of Requisitions :

Normally all requisitions for Non-Stock items are submitted to the feeding Stores Depot who will scrutinize the requisition to find if they could offer some alternative stock item. If not, Depot Officer will forward the requisition to COS office where purchase action will be initiated.

4.3.0 Planning of Non-Stock Items :

The ad-hoc indenting of non-stock items is not an efficient way of procurement and therefore on some of the Railways, Non-stock items are also arranged on a planned manner. In that case, heads of the departments are collecting requisitions for all non-stock items on fixed, nominated dates and after clubbing the requirements, combined requisitions are submitted to COS office as per a pre- decided time-table. By this method user departments are in a better position to monitor the purchase progress and work load of purchase office is also reduced by clubbing the requirement.

4.4.0 Conversion of Non Stock Items in to Stock Items :

If it is found that a non-stock item is regularly required, then attempt should be made by the Consuming department to get the item stocked in nearby Stores Depot.

If, 

• An item can be issued more than 2 times in a year and
• Annual consumption of the item is likely to be more than Rs. 2000/- 
• User department should submit stocking application on the prescribed proforma through the Stores Depot where it is desired to stock the item.
• Approval for stocking the item will be granted by COS.