Close GeM Portal Profile: GeM or Government eMarketplace is a government-owned marketplace for public departments, ministries, and public sector enterprises to purchase or procure goods and services they need from private enterprises, particularly MSMEs. The business-to-government platform facilitates MSMEs and other sellers to bid for tenders of public procurement and sell their products or services directly to the government without any involvement of a middleman for transparency and accountability in the process.
Currently, there are 64.61 lakh sellers registered on the portal including 8.26 lakh micro and small sellers who have a 52.25 per cent share in the marketplace’s gross merchandise value of Rs 4.44 lakh crore so far since its launch in August 2016.
However, sellers at their discretion may close their account whenever they want from the GeM portal after submitting the request to get their caution money — a one-time deposit amount to be paid before adding new products or services to their profile — back. For enterprises with a turnover of less than Rs 1 crore, Rs 5,000 caution money is levied while for a turnover between Rs 1 crore and Rs 10 crore, the caution money to be paid is Rs 10,000. For sellers with a turnover of more than Rs 10 crore, the caution money required is Rs 25 crore.
Here’s how to file a request for the caution money refund and close or deactivate profile on the GeM portal:
- Visit the GeM portal and log in with your GeM ID and password
- Click on ‘Manage Caution Money Account’ under the ‘Dashboard’ dropdown
- The caution money account will show your bank account details and the amount available in your caution money account under ‘Account Balance and Status’
- Click on ‘Withdraw Excess Funds’ to withdraw the amount shown under ‘Available Balance’
- Click on ‘Withdraw Amount’ and your request will be submitted
- The amount will get credited into your bank account in the next few working days
Also read: Public procurement: Check out latest procedure for sellers to register on GeM portal here
- To close your seller account, click on ‘Account Settings’ (above User Management) on the left panel of the screen
- The ‘Account Settings’ dropdown will show the ‘Close Account’ option; click on it
- The ‘Close Account’ page will appear to reconfirm whether you want to permanently close your account
- Click on ‘Close Account’ and then click on OK to confirm closure
