Public procurement: The value of goods purchased by government departments and public sector enterprises via the public procurement portal Government eMarketplace (GeM) in the current financial year is set to surpass the previous year’s procurement. Within eight months of the current fiscal, the procurement of goods and services by the government from MSME sellers has equalled the procurement value of the entire FY23.
On Monday, GeM posted on X (formerly Twitter) that it has “outperformed its previous fiscal year’s GMV in just eight months of this financial year with Rs 2 lakh crore in GMV as of November 13, 2023. This GMV achievement showcases the phenomenal success of GeM in reshaping public procurement in India.” In FY23, GeM had recorded a GMV of Rs 2.01 lakh crore.
According to the data from the marketplace, Rs 2 lakh crore GMV as of November 14 involved 32.27 lakh order volume vis-a-vis 50.36 lakh order volume for similar GMV in FY23.
Importantly, micro and small sellers had a 49 per cent share of the total order value.
“Out of the total procurement of goods and services since 2016, 50 per cent are coming from micro and small enterprises,” said GeM CEO PK Singh, according to a PTI report last week. Singh added that in 2016-17, procurement from these firms stood at USD 5 million, which jumped to USD 5 billion in 2020-21 and this fiscal it “will be in excess of USD 20 billion”.
The portal has more than 63,000 government organisations as buyers and more than 62 lakh sellers of various goods and services across more than 12,000 categories.
According to the information shared by Anupriya Patel, minister of state in the commerce ministry in the Lok Sabha on March 29 this year in a written reply to a question, MSMEs sold goods worth Rs 422.02 crore in FY17, Rs 5,876.53 crore in FY18, Rs 17,461.61 crore in FY19, Rs 22,916 crore in FY20 and Rs 38,570 crore in FY21 to the government.
Meanwhile, GeM would soon roll out its mobile-based lending platform GeM Sahay 2.0 for collateral-free loans up to Rs 10 lakh to GeM sellers. The existing GeM Sahay enables loans to businesses based on their orders on GeM. It currently has multiple banking partners such as UGRO Capital, ICICI Bank, Tata Capital, 121 Finance, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Oxyzo Finance, Kredable, Lending Kart, Union Bank and ABFL.