The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday gave approval for expanding the mandate of Govt e-Marketplace (GeM) to allow procurement by Cooperatives as buyers on the GeM portal.
This move is expected to help cooperatives in getting competitive prices.
More than 8.54 lakh registered cooperatives and their 27 crore members are expected to benefit from this initiative, according to an official statement released after the cabinet meeting.
At present, the platform is open for procurement by all government buyers-- central and state ministries, departments, public sector enterprises, autonomous institutions and local bodies. As per the existing mandate, GeM is not available for use by private sector buyers. Suppliers (sellers) can be from across all segments both government and private.
"Objective of GeM portal is inclusion, efficiency, and transparency. The cooperatives will get a platform to sell their products if they are included in the GeM. It has been seen that businesses have seen growth through the portal," said Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur, adding that the move will help over 8.54 lakh registered cooperatives and their 27 crore members
"After opening the GeM (Government e-Marketplace) portal, Self-Help Groups, MSMEs, and small businessmen have benefitted a lot. Different PSUs, ministries, depts, autonomous bodies, or local bodies of the government started buying from the GeM portal", said the Union Minister.
The GeM was launched on August 9, 2016, by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry to create an open and transparent procurement platform for government buyers. A Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) by the name of Government e-Marketplace (GeM SPV) was set up as the National Public Procurement Portal on May 17, 2017, in pursuance of the approval of the Union Cabinet accorded on April 12, 2017.
GeM is already adequately developed as a one-stop portal to facilitate online procurement of common use Goods and Services, said the statement, adding "it is transparent, efficient, has the economy of scale and is speedy in procurement. Cooperative Societies will now be allowed to procure goods and services from GeM".
Allowing Cooperative Societies to register on GeM as buyers would help Cooperatives in getting competitive prices through an. open and, transparent process, said the statement.
"The validated list of cooperatives to be onboarded on GeM - for pilot as well as subsequent scale up - will be decided by the Ministry of Cooperation in consultation with GeM SPV. This will ensure that technical capacity and logistics requirement of the GeM system are taken into account while deciding the pace of onboarding of Cooperative as buyers on GeM."
GeM will provide a dedicated onboarding process for cooperatives, provide the technical infrastructure to support additional users on the existing portal, as well as provide assistance to cooperatives for onboarding and transaction journeys, via available contact centers, in-field training and other support services, it said.
Ministry of Cooperation, the statement said, would issue necessary advisories to encourage the Cooperative Societies to make use of the GeM platform for procurement of goods and services in order to benefit from increased transparency, efficiency and competitive prices.
"To protect interests of the broader seller community on GeM and ensure timely payments, the modalities of payment systems shall be decided by GeM in consultation with the Ministry of Cooperation."
( With inputs from ANI )
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