Government e-Marketplace (GeM) has attained an annual procurement of Rs 1 Lakh crore in the current financial year and this figure is likely to surge to Rs 1.5 lakh crore in 2022-23, Prashant Kumar Singh, CEO, GeM, said on Thursday.
Talking to media persons, Singh said cumulative Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) of the GeM reached Rs 1 Lakh crore over 4 and half years from inception till 23rd March 2021, whereas the GMV of GeM in the current Financial Year surpassed Rs 1 lakh crore in less than a year. This represents a 160 per cent growth compared to the last financial year.
Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted about this accomplishment.
"Happy to know that Government e Marketplace (GeM) has achieved order value of Rs 1 lakh crore in a single year! This is a significant increase from previous years. The GeM platform is especially empowering MSMEs, with 57 per cent of order value coming from the MSME sector," the prime minister said in a tweet.
GeM is an online platform for public procurement in India. The initiative was launched on August 9, 2016, by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry with an objective to create an open and transparent procurement platform for government buyers.
Singh added that the portal had transformed public procurement in India by driving its three pillars viz. inclusion, usability and transparency and efficiency and cost saving. The number of orders has also surpassed 31.5 Lakh in the current financial year with a growth at the rate of 22 per cent. In a short span of 5 years, GeM has become one of the biggest government e-procurement platforms in the world.
Referring to the share of Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs), Singh said that approximately Rs 43,000 crore worth procurement was done by CPSEs (43 per cent of total GMV) on GeM, showing an approximate growth of 508 per cent as compared to last FY.
He also asserted that States continued to be an important stakeholder with approx. 30 per cent contribution to total GMV.
Highlighting the role played by GeM in ushering in inclusion in government procurement, Singh said that GeM has taken a host of steps to onboard products of Self-Help Groups (SHGs), tribal communities, craftsmen, weavers, and MSMEs. 57 per cent of the total business on GeM has come through the MSME units and over 6 per cent has been contributed by female entrepreneurs. It may be noted that the number of women sellers and entrepreneurs on GeM has grown 6 times in a year.
It may be noted that procurement from MSEs is at 57 per cent of the total GMV currently with a growth of 143 per cent compared to last FY. There is a 15 per cent increase in Buyer onboarding compared to last FY and there is a 187 per cent increase in Seller onboarding compared to last FY. There is also a 44 per cent increase in the number of Services compared to last FY with a 25 per cent contribution in the total GMV (Rs 25,000 crore).
According to an independent assessment made by the World Bank, the average savings for buyers in the Government e-Marketplace portal is about 9.75 per cent on the median price. Since inception GeM has shown impressive growth year on year with better prices, thus helping the state exchequer save substantial money.
In an analysis in the Economic Survey 2021-22, cost comparison of various commodities on GeM with those of popular online platforms such as Amazon and Flipkart showed that GeM prices were 9.5 per cent lower. 10 out of 22 commodities in the sample were cheaper on the GeM portal as compared to other platforms.
( With inputs from ANI )
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