New Delhi: The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi today gave its approval for procurement of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) Units for use in the General Elections, 2019 . The Cabinet decided that as many as 16,15,000 Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) Units will be purchased at a tentative unit cost of Rs 19,650, and at a total estimated cost of Rs 3173.47 crore (excluding taxes and freight as applicable) during the years 2017-18 and 2018-19 from M/s Bharat Electronics Ltd., Bangalore and M/s Electronics Corporation of India Ltd, Hyderabad. The Price Negotiation Committee has been directed to negotiate with M/s Bharat Electronics Ltd and M/s Electronics Corporation of India Ltd to rationalise the final unit price expeditiously. The Cabinet also approved allocation of additional funds to the tune of Rs 1,600 crore in the current financial year in the supplementaries/Revised Estimates for meeting the cash outgo envisaged for purchase of EVMs (Control Units & Ballot Units) and VVPAT Units during the year 2017-18, payment of 40 per cent of the said amount as advance to the manufacturers and for provision of balance amount as may be required in the Budget estimates 2018-19.
