India debars BLS International from tenders: Will passport, visa services in UAE be affected?

Abu Dhabi: India's Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has debarred BLS International, the outsourced agency for Indian passport and visa applications services in several countries including the UAE, from participating in future tenders of the MEA and Indian missions abroad, leading to the company's shares tumbling in the Indian stock market.

In a disclosure letter submitted to the National Stock Exchange of India, a copy of which has been seen by Gulf News, the company said it had been debarred from participation in future tenders of the MEA and India Missions abroad for a period of two years.

"The order for debarment has been issued on account of allegations including court cases and complaints of applicants," it cited.

The news of the debarment of BLS from participating in MEA's tenders raised questions on how it would impact the operations of BLS International in the UAE and elsewhere.

However, the company has clarified that there is no impact on financial, operation or other activities.

"This debarment shall not affect the financial/ performance of existing operations of the company," stated BLS, which operates around 15 Indian passport and visa application centres in the UAE.

"This debarment shall not affect the existing contracts of the MEA and shall continue as per the existing terms," it clarified.

Further, it added that the company was evaluating the MEA's order and "will take appropriate action to address it in due course as per the law."

However, the two-year debarment from bidding for MEA's and Indian missions' tenders has a huge significance here in the UAE.

With the debarment, BLS International now stands disqualified to enter the bidding procedures of the Indian Embassy in Abu Dhabi that plans to float a unified service centre for Indian passport and attestation services in the UAE.

As exclusively reported by Gulf News earlier in February, the Embassy had reopened a tender inviting bids from service providers to run Indian Consular Application Centre (ICAC) which will merge all the consular services under one facility.

The Embassy had proposed 14 branches of ICAC to serve more than four million Indian expats in the UAE and foreigners seeking Indian visa services through the Indian missions here. It said the missions handled approximately 1,584,174 services/ transactions during the three years from Jan-2022 to Dec-2024 (equivalent to 1760 transactions/services per working day, assuming 300 working days in a year).

However, the tender issued on January 31 was annulled in June, it has now emerged.

Though BLS was one of the service providers which bid for operating 14 centres of the proposed ICAC, it now stands disqualified to enter the same tender if the mission reopens it during the two-year debarment period, unless the company wins a legal battle which it has indicated at.

Given the situation, the operations of the Indian passport and visa services at BLS Centres in the UAE are expected to continue until the company’s contract with the Indian Embassy in Abu Dhabi and the Indian Consulate in Dubai expires, reportedly in about a year.

According to the Embassy’s website, the process for the tender seeking Request for Proposal (RFP) for outsourcing of Consular/Passport/Visa/OCI/Police Clearance Certificate (PCC) / Surrender Certificate (SC) /Global Entry Program (GEP) Verification/Miscellaneous Attestation related support services at Embassy of India, Abu Dhabi and Consulate General of India, Dubai was annulled as per clause xiv(k) of Chapter III of the RFP.

The clause refers to the Mission/Post reserving the right to accept or reject any or all Proposal(s) and to annul the bidding process, at any time, thereby rejecting all proposals, prior to the award of the Contract/any Agreement being signed, without assigning any reasons.

Gulf News has reached out to both the missions and BLS for comments, but none was received till the time of publication.