NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: E-retailers like Amazon and Flipkart may soon have a new competitor in the government e-Marketplace (GeM). The public procurement portal has doubled the business it facilitated in a year by processing orders worth over Rs 4 trillion in 2023-24, and is now preparing to make itself available to the general pubic for purchase of various goods and services.
“That (consumer orders on GeM) is a very different ecosystem. We are preparing for that.. We will do a small pilot in this area in the coming year if all the approvals are in place,” GeM chief executive officer P K Singh said. The idea is develop GeM as “unified procurement portal” for the country.
In the current fiscal year till March 28 this year, the platform has facilitated Rs 4 trillion worth of procurement by government departments, state-run companies, states and even panchayats which is almost double the level in 2022-23.
The growth this year has been pushed by services procurement which was Rs 2.05 trillion or 51% of the total. Procurement of services from GeM started in FY 20 and last year the number was Rs 66,128 crore.
“Services procurement has overtaken goods primarily led by big service contracts of handling and transport of coal, steel sector, petroleum and natural gas and power sectors. Number of transactions in services has gone up to 6.3 million as against 5 million last year,” Singh said.
Going forward, the share of services sector is set to rise again, as in goods, “there will be a slight tapering,” the CEO added.
Apart from looking at opening GeM for consumers, processing government works contracts through the portal is also being considered. “GeM can include work contracts in the portal. There is a lot of demand from the departments as at present they face a long process even for executing small works,” he said, adding that the idea is develop GeM as a unified procurement portal of the country.
Defence is another sector that has been a big user of GeM. This year the procurement through GeM by the ministry and its various wings has crossed Rs 50,000 crore and cumulatively the procurement has crossed Rs 1 trillion.
The defence procurement through GeM ranges from eggs to charter of aircraft, equipment and parts. “Assembly of BrahMos missiles is being done through GeM under a service contract,” GeM CEO said.
GeM has also onboarded 90,000 panchayats and more than 760 cooperatives. GeM’s vast network of more than 1.5 lakh Government buyers and 21 lakh sellers and service providers.
Source: The Financial Express