New Delhi: India's Government e-market (GEM) is all set to become the world's largest public procurement platform this financial year. Korea On-line E-Procurement System (KONEPS) was the largest platform with a turnover of $85 billion last fiscal, of which about 75% came from works contracts. “GEM's goods and services turnover alone (the Indian platform does not currently provide for works contracts) was $50 billion. In the current fiscal 2024-25, we will overtake KONEPS to become the world's largest public procurement platform,” PK Singh said. GeM CEO,
The platform currently has over 3.7 lakh buyers and over 21 lakh sellers for nearly 12,000 products and over 320 service categories. While computers and phones are the biggest items transacted through it, service contracts top the charts in terms of value. It closed the previous fiscal with a gross merchandise value (GMV) of Rs 4 lakh crore, double that of FY23, with purchases of services growing by 205%. The Union commerce ministry's GeM has enabled small domestic entrepreneurs to participate in government tenders from anywhere at any time, breaking the “cartel” of established service providers.
“We are using artificial intelligence extensively and have become the first government agency to create generative AI-based chatbox to address any queries. To improve the ease of doing business, we have cut transaction fees. Now orders between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 10 crore will attract a transaction fee of 0.3% of the order value. And orders above Rs 10 crore will attract a flat fee of Rs 3 lakh,” Singh said. While the seller evaluation process has been rationalised with a reduction in fees recoverable from sellers by up to 69% for manufacturers and up to 92% for traders, the caution deposit amount for new sellers with turnover up to Rs 1 crore has been reduced from Rs 5,000 to Rs 2,000 (a drop of 60%).
GeM on Thursday launched its Aadhaar collection platform that is “Vocal for Local”. It plans to launch a training platform for sahayak (helpers) who will help resolve queries of small sellers and guide them in the marketplace. “We saw there is a need for such a service. Properly trained sahayak will not be our employees but they will provide necessary help to anyone who needs it. We will issue a request for proposal (RFP) for this proposed scheme this month,” Singh said. The sahayak will get a fee for those who take their help.
The platform currently has over 3.7 lakh buyers and over 21 lakh sellers for nearly 12,000 products and over 320 service categories. While computers and phones are the biggest items transacted through it, service contracts top the charts in terms of value. It closed the previous fiscal with a gross merchandise value (GMV) of Rs 4 lakh crore, double that of FY23, with purchases of services growing by 205%. The Union commerce ministry's GeM has enabled small domestic entrepreneurs to participate in government tenders from anywhere at any time, breaking the “cartel” of established service providers.
“We are using artificial intelligence extensively and have become the first government agency to create generative AI-based chatbox to address any queries. To improve the ease of doing business, we have cut transaction fees. Now orders between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 10 crore will attract a transaction fee of 0.3% of the order value. And orders above Rs 10 crore will attract a flat fee of Rs 3 lakh,” Singh said. While the seller evaluation process has been rationalised with a reduction in fees recoverable from sellers by up to 69% for manufacturers and up to 92% for traders, the caution deposit amount for new sellers with turnover up to Rs 1 crore has been reduced from Rs 5,000 to Rs 2,000 (a drop of 60%).
GeM on Thursday launched its Aadhaar collection platform that is “Vocal for Local”. It plans to launch a training platform for sahayak (helpers) who will help resolve queries of small sellers and guide them in the marketplace. “We saw there is a need for such a service. Properly trained sahayak will not be our employees but they will provide necessary help to anyone who needs it. We will issue a request for proposal (RFP) for this proposed scheme this month,” Singh said. The sahayak will get a fee for those who take their help.