Government to promote local goods on procurement portal

“Since its inception, GeM is continuously working towards promotion of ‘Make in India’ initiative.  The Marketplace has facilitated the entry of small local sellers in Public Procurement while implementing ‘Make in India’ and MSE Purchase Preference Policies of the Government in the true sense. GeM is enabling quick, efficient, transparent, and cost-effective procurement, especially in this hour of need when government organizations require products and services urgently to fight against the Covid-19 pandemic,” said the release.

Further, it was added that the purchases through GeM by Government users have been authorised and made mandatory by the finance ministry by adding new rules.

The release also said that the GeM has also enabled a provision for an indication of the percentage of local content in products. The feature allows the user to know about the Country of Origin as well as the local content percentage.

Further, the newly enabled ‘Make in India’ filter allows buyers to buy only those products that meet the minimum 50 percent local content criteria. “Buyers can now reserve any bid for Class I Local suppliers (Local Content > 50%). For those Bids below INR 200 crore, only Class I and Class II Local Suppliers (Local content > 50% and > 20% respectively) are eligible to bid, with Class I supplier getting purchase preference,” the release further added.