Indian companies bidding for UAE government contracts.

What the CEPA gives you, in one table

Which UAE buyers are covered

Annex 10B, Section A lists 41 federal bodies. They include:

• Central government: the Prime Minister’s Office, the General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers, and the Ministries of Finance, Interior, Foreign Affairs, Economy, Education, Health and Prevention, Human Resources and Emiratisation, Justice, Community Development, Climate Change and Environment, Energy and Infrastructure, and Industry and Advanced Technology.
• Health and education establishments: the Emirates Medical Services Establishment, the Emirates School Establishment, UAE University, Zayed University and the Higher Colleges of Technology.
• Federal authorities: the Federal Authority for Identity, Citizenship, Customs and Port Security; the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority; the Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation; the UAE Space Agency; the Federal Authority for Government Human Resources; and the Federal Center for Competitiveness and Statistics.
• Others: the Federal National Council, the State Audit Institution, the Emirates News Agency and the Zakat Fund.

Three entities carry notes:

• Ministry of Interior: weapons, fire-control equipment, missiles, aircraft, ships, engines and turbines, and communications and detection equipment are excluded.
• Ministry of Foreign Affairs: embassy buildings abroad are excluded.
• General Authority of Islamic Affairs and Endowments: religious books are excluded.

All 41 may give a 10% price preference to domestic green suppliers and green goods of UAE origin.

Several of these bodies have been renamed or merged since 2022. The CEPA treats renaming and mergers as formal changes that don’t reduce coverage, but no updated list has been published, so match the successor body to the original name.

What’s covered, and what isn’t

Goods: all goods bought by the 41 entities, apart from the exclusions below. There’s no positive list.

Services: only services the UAE inscribed in its services schedule (Annex 8B). That’s a positive list, so check the specific service before relying on the treaty.

Excluded across the board (Annex 10B, Section D):

• Construction: the general notes exclude “procurement related to construction projects and contracts”. Federal construction projects are also outside the federal procurement law itself (Law 11/2023, Art. 4(1)(d)). For an Indian contractor, federal construction is effectively not open under the CEPA.
• Partnership projects (PPPs) under the 2017 and 2019 Cabinet resolutions.
• Procurement under the national In-Country Value programme.
• Oil, gas and minerals.
• Military procurement by the Ministry of Interior and security bodies.
• Medicines and drugs.
• Transport incidental to a contract, agricultural support and food aid.
• Land and buildings, grants and loans, employment contracts, and procurement funded by international organisations (Art. 10.3).

Valuation: the contract value is estimated over its whole life, including options. If it can’t be estimated, the procurement counts as covered (Art. 10.3.7–8).

The rules that protect you in a covered tender

• No local-experience test. Entities can’t require prior contracts with UAE bodies or prior work in the UAE (Art. 10.8.3(a)). They can ask for relevant experience if it’s essential, and your Indian track record counts.
• Limited conditions. Conditions for participation must relate to legal, financial, commercial and technical capacity. Exclusion is limited to listed grounds: bankruptcy, false declarations, serious past non-performance, serious crimes, professional misconduct and unpaid taxes.
• Fair specifications. Specifications should be performance-based and use international standards; brand names must be followed by “or equivalent” (Art. 10.13). Entities may still require sensitive government data to stay in the UAE.
• Registration systems must not create “unnecessary obstacles” for Indian suppliers (Art. 10.9.2).
• Your UAE subsidiary is protected too. A UAE-established company can’t be treated worse for being Indian-owned or for offering Indian goods (Art. 10.5.2).
• Award and debrief. The contract goes to the most advantageous tender, or the lowest price if price is the only criterion. Losing bidders are told the outcome and can ask for the reasons (Arts. 10.16–10.17).
• English where possible. The UAE should publish procurement information in English where possible (Art. 10.24). Federal law makes Arabic the default for tender documents and contracts, with English allowed; where both are used, the contract says which one governs (Law 11/2023, Art. 39).

What the CEPA doesn’t fix:

• Time to bid. There’s no minimum tender period in the treaty; it defers to domestic law. Federal entities give suppliers 15 business days to respond, extendable to 30 (Executive Regulation, Art. 26). Start preparing before a tender opens.
• SME preferences survive. Each country keeps the right to favour its own SMEs (Art. 10.22.4). UAE federal entities set aside 10% of annual spend for SMEs and give SMEs a 10% points bonus at award (Executive Regulation, Art. 13).
• State-to-state disputes. Chapter 10 is excluded from the CEPA’s dispute-settlement chapter. A review was due to start after 3 years and finish by 1 May 2026; no outcome has been published.

How to tell if a tender is covered

Check four things:

1. The buyer is one of the 41 entities in Annex 10B.
2. The value is at least SDR 134,000 for goods or listed services. Convert at the current IMF SDR rate; the full-life value counts.
3. The subject isn’t excluded: not construction, oil and gas, medicines, ICV-programme, PPP or military procurement.
4. The notice: Art. 10.7.3(j) requires covered notices to say they’re covered by the chapter. Don’t treat a missing flag as proof the tender isn’t covered; many notices may omit it.

Registering as a federal supplier, step by step

1. Set up UAE PASS. The Digital Procurement Platform has used UAE PASS as its only login since March 2024. Non-residents can usually create a visitor account with a passport; confirm this when you sign up.
2. Register on the DPP as a “Foreign Supplier”. This is the category for a company located outside the UAE with no UAE branch. Registration runs in three stages: registration, qualification and activation.
3. Upload the documents. The platform asks for:
   • A trade licence. For an Indian company, that’s your certificate of incorporation and constitutional documents.
   • A tax registration certificate (your GST and PAN registration).
   • A passport copy of the owner.
   • Bank details.
4. Wait for review. It takes up to 30 working days. There’s no fee.
5. Keep documents current. Renew each document when it expires; the platform sends alerts.

Only “Registered and Accepted” suppliers can bid, and federal entities may not contract with anyone else (Executive Regulation, Art. 7).

Legalising Indian documents: when a tender asks for attested documents, the usual chain for Indian commercial papers is notarisation, then attestation by the Ministry of External Affairs, then the UAE Embassy in New Delhi or a UAE consulate, then the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs. An Arabic legal translation may also be needed. Check each tender’s requirements before starting, because the chain takes weeks.

Bidding and winning

• Consortia. “Supplier alliances” are allowed where the tender permits them. Every member must be registered and accepted, members are jointly liable, and a registered lead member represents the group (Executive Regulation, Art. 45). That suits an Indian manufacturer pairing with a UAE distributor or installer. askTender can help you find a partner for a specific tender.
• Performance bond. It may be issued by a bank inside or outside the UAE, must be unconditional, and must stay valid for the contract period plus 90 days (Executive Regulation, Art. 1). Bid-bond and performance-bond percentages are set in the federal procurement manual, which isn’t public, so read each tender.
• After award. You have 10 business days to provide the documents or bond and 15 business days to sign the contract (Arts. 31 and 36).
• Delay penalties are capped at 10% of the contract value per year (Art. 41).
• Payment terms are one of the evaluation criteria (Law 11/2023, Art. 22), so better terms can score points.

Challenging a decision

Federal law gives you 5 business days to file a grievance with a Grievance Committee inside the buying entity. It decides within 5 business days, or 10 for grievances before award. Its decision is final, and silence counts as rejection (Law 11/2023, Art. 38; Executive Regulation, Arts. 48–49). Contract disputes go to the UAE courts.

The CEPA promises more: an impartial reviewer independent of the buying entity, at least 10 days to file, and interim measures (Art. 10.20). The UAE hasn’t published how this applies to covered tenders, so file within 5 business days, and cite Chapter 10 in your grievance.

Beyond federal: Dubai, Abu Dhabi and ADNOC

Most UAE public spending happens at emirate level and in government-owned companies, which the CEPA doesn’t reach.

• Dubai: Dubai government portals generally require a UAE trade licence, through a mainland company, a free-zone company or a local agent. Dubai law gives preference to local and GCC suppliers.
• Abu Dhabi and ADNOC: In-Country Value scoring carries heavy weight. An ICV certificate needs audited UAE financials, so it requires a UAE entity. See our ICV certificate guide.
• The usual route: a UAE subsidiary or a joint venture with a UAE partner, then ICV certification. Under the CEPA, that subsidiary can’t be disadvantaged in federal tenders for being Indian-owned.

For the general UAE process, see how to bid for government contracts in the UAE.

The reverse direction: UAE companies in India

India covers 34 central ministries and departments, at SDR 20,000,000 for goods, services and construction (often reported as about ₹200 crore). Its exclusions are broad:

• PSUs, autonomous and subordinate bodies, and regulators.
• All procurement under the Make in India Public Procurement Order, which covers much of Indian government buying.
• Construction and infrastructure.
• Health care, including medical devices and pharmaceuticals.

Notices appear on CPPP and GeM. State governments aren’t covered.

What changed in 2025–2026

• CEPA Joint Committee: the third meeting was held in November 2025, with no procurement outcome reported. In September 2025 the two trade ministers set a target of USD 100bn in non-oil trade by 2030.
• Dispute-settlement review: the window for reviewing the exclusion of Chapter 10 from dispute settlement closed on 1 May 2026, with no published result.
• Federal rules now settled: the 2024 Executive Regulation sets the 15–30 business-day response period, the 5-day grievance window, the SME bonus and set-aside, and the requirement to score ICV.

Live UAE tenders

Questions

Sources

• India–UAE CEPA: full text (UAE Ministry of Economy and Tourism)
• Federal Law No. 11 of 2023 on Procurements in the Federal Government
• Cabinet Resolution No. 122 of 2024: Executive Regulation of the federal procurement law
• UAE Ministry of Finance: federal procurement

This guide explains the rules in plain English; it isn’t legal advice. Procurement rules change, and each tender document sets its own conditions — it always prevails.