GeM eyes procurement of ₹2 lakh crore in FY23

CHENNAI

Government e-Marketplace (GeM), a national procurement portal, is eyeing annual procurement worth ₹2 lakh crore during FY23, following a buoyancy in its adoption, said Prasanth Kumar Singh, CEO. 

“In the first four months of the current fiscal, we did a gross merchandise value (GMV) of ₹60,000 crore and hence, ₹2 lakh crore is achievable,” he said in an interview.  

While terming the growth of public procurement as phenomenal, he said since inception, it took almost four-and-a-half years to reach the first ₹1 lakh crore (March 2021), while in the last fiscal, the GMV was ₹1.70 lakh crore. The cumulative GMV till date is ₹2.86 lakh crore.

According to him, it was due to the huge participation by buyers of Central/State governments, Central/State PSUs and MSEs. It was in the ratio of 30%, 30% and 40% respectively.

Incidentally, it is mandatory for Central government and PSUs to make procurement through GeM.

However, Mr. Singh said that the participation of southern States in GeM was lower, as they had their own portal and felt opening their doors [to GeM] would be detrimental to the sellers in the state. 

“Tamil Nadu and Karnataka are progressive States and have their own portals. The portals are dated. They do not have marketplace like GeM. It does not have visibility and the sellers don’t get better pricing for the products,” he said.