Defence ministry top buyer of MSME goods in 2022: GeM 

Ease of doing business for MSMEs: The Ministry of Defence was the top procuring ministry of goods and services from MSME sellers in the calendar year 2022, said the government’s public procurement e-commerce marketplace Government eMarketplace (GeM). “At number one in procurement, the Ministry of Defence has reached an all-time high. Reaping the benefits of cost efficiency and speedy procurement, the ministry has purchased products and services worth Rs 16,747 crore in 2022 from the portal,” GeM tweeted sharing the marketplace’s performance last year. 

Financial year-wise, the defence ministry had procured Rs 15,047.98 crore worth of goods and services from MSMEs in FY22, up 250 per cent from the previous year, FE Aspire had reported last year. Moreover, purchases during April-December FY22 had already surpassed the FY22 procurement level with the gross merchandise value of Rs 15,039 crore achieved in eight months of the current FY, GeM had tweeted earlier.

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Meanwhile, in terms of state, Uttar Pradesh ranked top buyer of MSME goods worth Rs 9,642 crore through GeM in 2022. In terms of training and development, 1,459 training sessions on cost-saving buying or running a business were conducted in 2022 and 93,050 people were trained. Moreover, 1,288 new categories and over 4.72 lakh products were added in 2022. With respect to sellers and buyers, 22,38,601 new sellers and 8,178 new buyers were added to the portal during the year.

GeM’s performance was also hailed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for enabling MSMEs’ participation in government tenders. Addressing the launch of 75 Digital Banking Units (DBUs) across the country in November last year, PM Modi said, “Today our small businesses and MSMEs are participating in government tenders through platforms like GeM. You can imagine how the local economy of the country and our mission of Vocal for Local have benefitted through this.”

Also read: GeM: Public procurement crosses Rs 3 lakh crore; doubles in 12 months

The marketplace had recorded Rs 106,647 crore turnover in FY22 and is aspiring to double it in FY23, GeM CEO Prashant Kumar Singh had earlier told FE Aspire. “This growth of Rs 1.06 lakh crore is 17 times more than the first year when GeM came into being and almost 55 per cent of the cumulative (turnover) in the previous financial (year). This shows excellent growth from MSMEs, PSUs, and states,” Singh had said.