Tender terms excluding GST from bid rates required separate payment of the GST component over and above contract amount.

Tender terms were treated as governing the bid where the notice inviting tender stated that quoted rates were to include all taxes except GST. The bill of quantities also required rates to be entered without taxes, and that wording could not be displaced by the employer's later contention or by the internal estimate. A bidder was bound by the express tender conditions, and the conduct of other bidders could not override them. On that basis, the GST component was payable over and above the contract amount, and the refusal to pay it was set aside.

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Issues: Whether the tender conditions and bill of quantities required the bidder to quote the rate without GST, and whether the petitioner was entitled to payment of the GST component in addition to the contract amount.

Analysis: The notice inviting tender specifically stated that quoted rates were to include all taxes except GST. The bill of quantities also required rates to be filled without taxes and was not shown to have been wrongly prepared. The tender document, once acted upon, governed the contract, and the employer could not later contend that GST ought to have been included in the bid. A bidder was bound by the express tender terms, and the conduct of other bidders or the internal estimate could not override those terms. Since the contract was framed on a basis excluding GST from the bid amount, the tax component could not be denied to the petitioner.

Conclusion: The petitioner was not bound to include GST in the bid, and the respondents were liable to pay the GST component over and above the contract amount.

Final Conclusion: The tender terms were held to prevail, the impugned refusal was set aside, and relief was granted to the petitioner for payment of GST.

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