How to compare MEP contractor quotations: one set of quantities, one scope, one basis for tax and payment

Three quotations for the same MEP package rarely price the same package. One bidder has measured the cable from the drawings and another has estimated it from floor area; one names its chiller and another writes "reputed make"; one is silent on testing and as-built drawings; one asks for a large advance. Award on the lowest total and you award on whichever bid left out the most.

The fix is to compare in a fixed order — the same quantities, then the same scope, then the same makes, then the same tax and payment basis — and only then the totals. Start with each bid's priced BOQ line by line, its exclusions sheet and its commercial terms, all priced on the same drawing revision; if two bidders priced different revisions, re-issue and re-price, because no adjustment fixes that. The MEP quotation comparison calculator does the arithmetic of the first two steps.

1. Price every bid against common quantities

A quotation is rates multiplied by quantities. If the quantities differ between bids, the totals differ for a reason that has nothing to do with price. Fix one quantity per line — from your own BOQ, or measured from the drawings — and multiply each bidder's rate by it. Where a bidder's own quantity differs materially, ask how it was measured: a short quantity in an item-rate bid is a future variation, and a long one may be padding inside a lump sum. These are the lines where the differences hide:

On an item-rate bid, also read the rates against each other. High rates on early items and low rates on late ones, or high rates on items whose quantity is likely to grow, leave the total unchanged while moving money earlier or into the variations.

2. Put a price on the scope each bid leaves out

Build a matrix with every element of the work as a row and each bidder as a column, and mark each cell included, excluded or silent. Silent is the state that matters: a quotation that does not mention testing has not priced it, and the bidder will say so after award. For each excluded or silent item, add an allowance before comparing totals — the rate another bidder quoted for it or, where nobody priced it, your own estimate, marked as one. Provisional sums must be the same figure in every bid, or they are not comparable.

A worked example, with illustrative figures: Bid A totals ₹10 lakh but omits scope that Bid B prices at ₹2 lakh, so on the common scope Bid A is ₹12 lakh. Bid B is ₹11.5 lakh all-in — ₹50,000 lower on the same defined scope, although its headline was higher.

The rows bidders commonly treat differently:

• Design responsibility — full design, or installation to someone else's drawings
• Statutory applications — who prepares the files for the Fire NOC, the electrical inspection and the DISCOM connection, and who pays the fees. The decisions belong to the authorities, so price the work, never an outcome.
• Owner-supplied items — DG set, transformer, lifts, light fittings, sanitaryware, BMS
• Testing, adjusting and balancing, and integrated commissioning
• As-built drawings, O&M manuals and training
• Civil interfaces — plinths, trenches, core cutting, fire-stopping
• Site facilities — construction power and water, storage, scaffolding

3. Check that "equivalent" makes really are equivalent

A lower price on a different make is a saving only if the alternative meets the same specification:

• The same rating at the same conditions. A chiller's capacity and efficiency mean nothing without the water temperatures or ambient they were rated at; an AHU's airflow means nothing without its external static pressure. Keep tonnes of refrigeration and kW of cooling, which are thermal capacity, apart from the kW the machine draws.
• The same standard and certification. Several common MEP items are on the Bureau of Indian Standards' compulsory-certification list: PVC-insulated cables up to and including 1,100 V (IS 694), switches (IS 3854), residual current circuit breakers (IS 12640) and circuit breakers for overcurrent protection (IS/IEC 60898) under the Electrical Wires, Cables, Appliances and Protection Devices and Accessories (Quality Control) Order, 2003, and outdoor oil-immersed distribution transformers up to 2,500 kVA and 33 kV (IS 1180 Part 1) under the Electrical Transformers (Quality Control) Order, 2015. An alternative make of a listed item needs a valid BIS licence for that standard; BIS's Know Your Standards portal lists the licences issued against each one.
• The same tests and support. Routine and type test certificates to the same standard, factory acceptance tests where specified, and comparable warranty terms, service presence and spares.

Where a bidder offers a lower-tier alternative, ask for the specified make to be priced as well. The comparison then runs like for like, and the alternative becomes a separate decision with its own saving attached.

4. Bring taxes onto one basis

Compare the totals before GST, and deal with the tax line separately. Ask every bidder to show GST as its own line, with the rate and classification applied — one rate on a single works-contract price, or separate rates on supply and on installation. If two bids treat the same scope differently, resolve it with the bidders and your tax adviser before award; a smaller tax line is not a lower price if it is wrong.

What the GST finally costs you also depends on input tax credit. Section 17(5)(c) of the CGST Act, 2017 blocks credit on works contract services supplied for construction of an immovable property, other than plant and machinery, except where they are an input service for a further supply of works contract service; the Act's explanation counts renovation, additions and alterations as construction to the extent they are capitalised. Which side of that line your package falls on is a question for your tax adviser, not something to infer from a quotation.

5. Put the payment terms into the price

Two bids with the same total are not the same price if one asks for its money earlier. Write each payment schedule out as amounts against milestones: the advance and its security (a bank guarantee, or nothing); material and running payments, and whether they follow joint measurement; retention and when it is released; price validity and the escalation basis — copper and steel escalation clauses deserve their own reading; and the defect-liability period, including whether it covers parts.

Money paid earlier has a cost: the amount, multiplied by your own cost of funds, for the months it is paid ahead of the work. Where bids are close, that cost — and the risk of an unsecured advance — can decide the order. The retention and final-bill terms decide how the last part of the money moves.

The decision table: what to do with each difference

Then ask the low bidder to explain the number

Once the bids are on one basis, any remaining gap is margin, efficiency or method. Ask the lowest bidder to walk through the price against the BOQ: a leaner but compliant design or a make that meets the specification is a good answer; silence on the lines where they are cheapest is not. The L1 award that backfires is usually the one where nobody asked.

Most of this work disappears if the tender goes out with one measured BOQ, named makes and a mandatory exclusions sheet — the tender BOQ checklist covers how — and why per-square-foot MEP costs vary gives a sense check before bids arrive. The one-page checklist condenses this method, and more planning guides are on the Insights page. The work itself is delivered under turnkey EPC; to have bids lined up against one scope, share the project layout and equipment schedule for a scope and BOQ review.

Sources and how to verify

• Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 — section 17 — Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) tax information portal: section 17(5)(c) and Explanation 1, as the portal showed them on 6 Oct 2026.
• Products under compulsory certification — Scheme I (ISI mark) — Bureau of Indian Standards: the cable, switch, circuit-breaker and distribution-transformer entries and their Quality Control Orders, as listed on 6 Oct 2026.
• Know Your Standards — Bureau of Indian Standards: the current edition of a standard, its amendments and the licences issued against it.

Confirm locally: the GST treatment and your input-tax-credit position for this contract with your own tax adviser, and that the BIS licence of any alternative make is valid on the date of supply.