Govt procurement through GeM portal doubles to Rs 4 lakh crore

New Delhi: Procurement of goods and services through the Government e-Marketplace (GeM) has crossed Rs 4 lakh crore in gross merchandise value in the current financial year, double when compared with the previous year, a senior official said on Friday.

“There was a remarkable surge in procurement of services. It has increased by 205% so far this year,” Prashant Kumar Singh, CEO, Government e-Marketplace, told reporters.

Singh said Rs 4 lakh crore gross merchandise value in the current financial year crossed on March 28 evening. Nearly half of this business (Rs 1.97 lakh crore) went to micro and small enterprises. In the financial year 2022-23 the gross merchandise value of procurement through GeM portal stood at Rs 2.01 lakh crore.

The GeM portal was launched in August 2016 to facilitate online purchases of goods and services by all central government ministries and departments.

During the financial year 2016-17, the gross merchandise value of procurements done through the portal stood at Rs 422 crore. It crossed Rs 1 lakh crore mark in the financial year 2021-22 and doubled to Rs 2.01 lakh crore in 2022-23.

Since its inception in 2016, GeM has facilitated more than 2.1 crore orders worth over Rs 7.9 lakh crore.

Singh said several state governments are also using the portal extensively. Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Delhi and Madhya Pradesh are leading in procurements through GeM portal. “We have also moved to Panchayats,” he said.

‘The platform has given impetus to hyper local economies across regions in India, resulting in job creation and greater incomes,” Singh added.

According to the official, of the Rs 4 lakh crore gross merchandise value recorded in FY 2023-24, nearly 50% have been awarded to marginalised seller segment such as artisans, weavers, craftsmen, MSEs, especially women-led and SC/Sts, self help groups (SHGs), farmer producer organisations (FPOs) and startups.

GeM provides the tools of e-bidding, reverse e-auction and demand aggregation to facilitate the government users, achieve the best value for their money.

Singh claimed that procurement through the GeM portal has led to at least 10% savings. With Rs 7.9 lakh crore of cumulative procurements since 2016, the government departments and ministries are estimated to have saved around Rs 80,000 crore by opting for the GeM portal.

In terms of order volume, GeM processed over 62.31 lakh orders till March 28 in the current financial year, which is 23.6% higher when compared with the total 50.36 lakh orders recorded in 2022-23.

The Ministry of Defence is among the top buyers through the GeM portal. The ministry has done procurement of goods and services worth over Rs 1 lakh crore through the portal since its inception in 2016. Ministries of coal, power, petroleum and natural gas and central public sector enterprises associated with these ministries are among the top users of GeM portal for their procurements of goods and services.

GeM has emerged as the third largest dedicated portal for government procurement globally. South Korea’s KONEPS is the largest such platform followed by Singapore’s GeBIZ.

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