India’s public procurement platform Government E Marketplace (GeM) is planning to invite bidding for government purchases from foreign suppliers and enable rate contract tenders, while facilitating transactions worth Rs 7 lakh crore in the current financial year.
“According to the current rules foreign suppliers cannot participate in government contracts of below Rs 200 crore. For contracts over that value foreign suppliers can be permitted,” chief executive officer of GeM Mihir said.
The move comes at a time when the FTA with the UAE, and the recently announced trade pact with the UK have opened up government procurement to the respective trading partners.
The modalities of participation of foreign suppliers – whether they will first have to empanel to participate in the procurement – will be decided in due course, he added.
Apart from rate contracts, the consultations are on to include work contracts on GeM. Rate contracts are those where a supplier agrees to supply a product or a service on a fixed price over a defined time period. The products that can be covered by rate contracts could include procurement of drugs, medicines and other supplies by the public health systems.
The consultation process for including work contracts on GeM has been on for a long time.
The work contract is issued to carry out construction, installation, erection repair, renovation, maintenance, alteration of any movable or immovable property. It can include works as simple as repairs to building schools, hospitals, highways and dams. Out of the total public procurement figures globally, about 90 per cent is work contracts.
In the just concluded financial year 2024-25 the GeM facilitated procurement of Rs 5.43 lakh crore, posting a growth of 35% over the previous year. Of the total 61% were services and the rest were goods. The GeM CEO did not give a breakup of goods and services the platform will facilitate this FY.
Kumar said from Rs 5,000 crore worth of equipment for the Akash Missile System to Rs 5,085 crore in vaccine procurement, GeM is powering national priorities at scale. The platform is also facilitating specialized services—such as drone-as-a-service for AIIMS, GIS and insurance solutions covering over 1.3 crore lives, and wet leasing of chartered flights and CT scanners—underscoring its adaptability and growing relevance in complex, mission-critical procurements.
Overall the GeM has facilitated more than 2.8 crore orders worth over Rs 13.4 lakh crore since its launch in 2020-21. The GeM now processes 20,028 orders with a gross merchandise value of Rs 1503 crore daily. The number of buyers on GeM stands at 1.63 akh and sellers total 22.92 lakh.
The GeM has boarded all central government departments, public sector enterprises and allied bodies. It has signed MoU with all state governments and union territories for facilitating their procurement through the platform. Around 1.6 lakh gram panchayats and over 500 cooperatives have also been onboarded.
“We will focus on states this year. We have to increase the footprint of states,” Kumar said.
GeM has been adopted across all 36 States and Union Territories. Eight states- Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Assam, Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh—have mandated GeM use.