Public procurement from MSMEs on GeM: The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has procured goods and services worth Rs 685 crore as of October 10 in the current financial year from the government’s business-to-government public procurement portal Government e-Marketplace (GeM). Announcing the update on X, GeM, which has largely MSME sellers, the ministry is gradually advancing in the public procurement landscape and has made effective use of the public procurement platform.
Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs is the nodal agency of major initiatives of national importance such as the housing mission for the urban poor Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), and Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) for the development of basic infrastructure in cities across the country such as drainage, water supply, sewerage and septic tanks.
However, during the financial year 2022-23, the defence ministry was the top buyer of MSME goods via GeM which nearly doubled its online procurement from the previous fiscal, FE Aspire had reported. The ministry had made purchases worth Rs 28,732.9 crore in FY23, up by 90.4 per cent from Rs 15,090.8 crore worth of goods and services bought in FY22.
In the current financial year, till July, the defence ministry was among the top procurers on GeM with procurement amounting to Rs 13,776 crore.
Also read: Coal ministry sees 60X jump in its procurement of goods, services from FY21 via GeM
As of October 24, as per data from the GeM platform, goods and services worth Rs 1.85 lakh crore were procured with an order volume of 29.18 lakh across 11,843 products and 311 service categories. The platform had over 1.03 lakh primary buyers and over 1.95 lakh secondary buyers. MSEs currently constitute 48.83 per cent of the order value.
To boost MSMEs participation on GeM, the platform had inked an MoU with the Udyam platform in order to share the data of Udyam MSMEs with GeM in addition to giving businesses a chance to participate in trade fairs, exhibitions, conclaves, and expos, as well as participate in Make in India initiatives to help government buyers meet their MSE procurement targets.