Liquid Assets in e-GP: Why Your Gross Figure Is Not the Number That Matters
Liquid assets disqualify more bidders in Bangladesh than almost any other financial criterion — and usually not because the contractor is short of money. It is because they read the requirement wrong.
The tender asks for a minimum amount of liquid assets, credit line, or working capital. Say Tk. 65 Lakh. A contractor with Tk. 50 Lakh in the bank looks at that and thinks: close, but no. Another with Tk. 80 Lakh thinks: comfortable. Both may be wrong.
The reason sits in five words that most bidders skim past.
The Phrase That Decides It: "Net of Other Contractual Commitments"
Read the requirement in the Tender Data Sheet carefully. It typically reads:
"availability of minimum financial resources in any form or combination of forms of liquid assets or credit line(s) or working capital, net of other contractual commitments"
That phrase is not decoration. It is the whole test.
Gross liquid assets = what you have. Net available liquid assets = what you have, minus what is already committed to work in hand.
Only the second number is evaluated.
A Worked Example
Suppose the tender requires Tk. 65,00,000 in liquid assets.
Contractor A has Tk. 80,00,000 in the bank. Comfortable, surely? But Tk. 30,00,000 is tied to three ongoing projects. Net available: Tk. 50,00,000. Fails.
Contractor B has Tk. 70,00,000 with no ongoing commitments. Net available: Tk. 70,00,000. Passes.
Contractor A has more money than Contractor B and still loses. That is the rule working exactly as intended — the evaluation is asking whether you can finance this contract, not whether you are wealthy in general.
What Counts as a Liquid Asset
Generally, liquid assets are resources you can actually deploy on the contract:
- Cash at bank — current or savings accounts.
- Fixed Deposits (FDR) — but only those free from lien. An FDR pledged as security elsewhere is not liquid to you.
- Confirmed credit line certificates from scheduled banks.
The common trap is the second one. Contractors count FDRs that are already pledged against other obligations. Those are not available, and an evaluation committee that checks will find it.
Get the Form Right — e-PW2A-8
This is where careful contractors still lose bids on a technicality.
Tenders routinely specify that liquid asset documents must be submitted in the Form e-PW2A-8, in original, and often within a defined window — typically between the invitation of tender and the submission deadline.
Tender Data Sheets frequently carry a warning to this effect: submit in the specified form, in original, otherwise the tender will be considered non-responsive.
Three things follow from this:
Use the exact form the tender names. Do not send your bank's standard solvency letter and hope. Ask your bank to issue it in the format the tender document specifies.
Watch the date window. A certificate issued before the tender was invited may be rejected as outside the required period.
Submit the original where the tender demands original. A scan or copy where the original is required is a straightforward path to non-responsiveness.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Reporting gross instead of net. The single biggest error.
- Counting lien-marked FDRs as available.
- Using the wrong form — a general bank solvency certificate instead of the specified e-PW2A-8.
- A stale certificate issued outside the permitted window.
- Forgetting to update. Your commitments change as projects start and finish. The figure that was true last month may not be true today.
Stop Doing This Arithmetic by Hand
Working out your net available liquid assets for every tender — while your ongoing commitments shift — is tedious, and a single error costs you the bid.
eGPTenderHub does it for you. Enter your gross liquid assets and your existing commitments once in your company profile. For every tender you analyse, the AI subtracts what is committed and compares your net available figure against the requirement — showing you plainly whether you pass, and by how much.
It does the same for tender capacity, personnel, equipment, and mandatory documents.
Know your real position before you bid. Check it in minutes at egptenderhub.com.
Confirm the exact form, amount and submission window against your specific tender document. If anything is unclear, raise it at the pre-bid meeting — the procuring entity's clarification is authoritative.