Crisis in semi-conductor supply delayed EVM manufacturing, EC tells House panel

The committee, which is chaired by BJP MP Sushil Kumar Modi, laid its report on the demand for grants (2023-2024) of Law and Justice Ministry’s Legislative Department, through which the EC is funded, on the table in the Lok Sabha on March 20.

The capital expenditure on “EVMs for Election Commission” had increased from Rs 1,000 crore in the Budget Estimate 2021-2022 to Rs 1,500 crore in 2022-2023 and Rs 1,866.78 crore for 2023-2024. “This provision has been made for payments in respect of purchase of EVMs for the Lok Sabha election to be conducted in 2024,” the report said.

Of the Rs 1,500 crore allocated for 2022-23, the department had used Rs 240.86 crore as of January 31. The EC informed the panel, through the Legislative Department, that bills for Rs 598.84 crore had been sent to the law ministry for sanction and would be paid to the manufacturers as and when they are sanctioned.

“EC has further stated that the balance budgetary allocation will also be utilised in the current financial year as the delay in manufacture of EVMs happened due to severe supply crisis of semi-conductor (an essential component for manufacture of EVM & VVPAT) in the global market and hence, resulted in further submission of bills to the commission for making payment,” the report said.

Asked for a comment on the status of EVM procurement, an EC spokesperson did not respond and Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar could not be reached.

Prof Rajat Moona, director, Indian Institute of Technology-Gandhinagar and a member of the EC’s technical committee on EVMs, told The Indian Express that while the shortage of semiconductors had affected industries across the board after the onset of Covid-19 and lockdowns, the situation had now improved.

“There was a time when semiconductor manufacturers were not able to give a timeline of when they would be able to deliver and the prices had also sky-rocketed. The situation is better now. It is not alarming,” he said, adding that this was the case for all industries, not just EVM manufacturing.