Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal Highlights GeM’s Role In Transparent Public Procurement

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has said that the Government e-Marketplace (GeM) reflects the procurement of the right product of the right quality, at the right price and at the right time. The Minister said this while speaking at the 10th Foundation Day of GeM in New Delhi yesterday.

Mr Goyal recalled that prior to the introduction of GeM, public money was being misused, procurement was non-transparent and lacked good governance. He underlined that today, procurement is being carried out through a public procurement e-commerce platform, where transparency, competitiveness and strong standards are maintained before registration.

Mr Goyal said GeM is an effort to digitise public procurement and replace opacity with transparency. He noted that since the introduction of the GeM portal, its gross merchandise value has grown to over five lakh crore rupees per year over the last two years, from over four hundred crore rupees in 2016-17.

Mr Goyal said cumulatively, GeM has helped in the procurement of over twenty lakh crore rupees worth of goods and services through the portal, through more than three crore orders. He underlined that procurement worth ten lakh crore rupees took place in the first eight years, while the next ten lakh crore rupees was covered in only two years.

The Minister mentioned that over 2.25 lakh women-led enterprises have won orders worth nearly one lakh crore rupees through the portal. He added that over 42,000 start-ups have carried out business with government enterprises worth almost 66,000 crore rupees. Mr Goyal informed that GeM is being revamped and a new user-friendly, AI-enabled portal will be launched soon.

The Minister also launched a dedicated nationwide five-digit short code, 14550, for the GeM Helpdesk, enabling buyers, sellers and other stakeholders to access support and identify official GeM communications.