Ease of doing business for MSMEs: The government’s e-commerce portal Government e-Marketplace (GeM) has over 8.5 lakh registered micro and small enterprises (MSEs) getting business worth more than Rs 1.87 lakh crore so far across over 68 lakh orders, informed its chief executive officer Prashant Kumar Singh on Wednesday. Moreover, more than 1.45 lakh women MSEs have fulfilled 7.32 lakh orders worth Rs 15,922 crore and approximately 43,000 SC/ST MSEs have delivered over 1.35 lakh orders amounting to Rs 2,592 crore on GeM so far, Singh noted at an event to commemorate the success of SWAYATT initiative launched in February 2019 to promote ‘Start-ups, Women and Youth Advantage Through eTransactions’ on the portal.
Radha S Chauhan, Secretary, Ministry of Personnel and Training hailed GeM for ramping up the presence of the underserved seller groups such as MSEs, women, divyangjan and tribal entrepreneurs, startups, self-help groups, artisan and weavers etc., and giving them direct access to the government procurement.
“The intent of SWAYATT was to promote inclusiveness of various categories of sellers and service providers on the portal by taking proactive steps to facilitate their training and registrations of such specific category of manufacturers and sellers, develop women entrepreneurship and encourage the participation of MSME sector and start-ups in public procurement,” Commerce ministry said in a statement.
However, one cannot ascertain the number of active sellers on GeM out of the total registered count. “There is no definition of an active supplier on GeM. Registered suppliers decide to participate in any bid depending on their interest, availability of products and other factors. All the registered sellers have equal opportunity to participate in the marketplace and bids,” Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal had informed Rajya Sabha in December last year. Active sellers in e-commerce are generally those who have sold at least one product per month or have at least one product listed for sale.
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Meanwhile, GeM had hit Rs 1,06,647 crore turnover in FY22 and is looking to double it in the current fiscal. The portal was last month roped in by the Department of Expenditure (DEA) to help MSMEs get 95 per cent of the performance and bid security amount forfeited by departments and central public sector enterprises for failing to execute contracts during Covid (between February 19, 2020 and March 31, 2022).