Inability of contractors to factor dormant statutory levies into bid prices

protects tenderers from bearing retrospective fiscal burdens that could not have been reasonably priced at the time of submitting their bids. Tender clauses routinely mandate that bidders incorporate all duties, taxes, and statutory levies payable as of a cut-off date typically twenty-eight days prior to the bid submission deadline. Where the BOCW Act and Cess Act existed only in text without operative rules, appointed assessing officers, or constituted Welfare Boards in a specific State, contractors could not practically or lawfully estimate and embed a non-functioning cess into their financial quotations. Factoring an uncollected, dormant cess into public bids without an enforceable collection mechanism would lead to artificial cost inflation and potentially unjust and unlawful enrichment of the bidders. Consequently, when an administrative mechanism is subsequently established and enforced by the State after the bid cut-off date, such implementation constitutes a change in law triggering contractual protection. (Prakash Atlanta (JV) Vs National Highways Authority of India | 2026 INSC 76).