Government's e-Marketplace will soon be No 1 public procurement portal, says CEO

It may be just six years old, but the government's online marketplace has carved itself a solid chunk of business. With the enthusiastic backing of government departments, it has recorded a gross merchandise value that rivals that of private players like Amazon India or Flipkart... and public procurement numbers that put it among the top three portals in the world.

At 4 pm on the November 29, the Government's e-Marketplace (GeM) crossed Rs 1 lakh crore in procurements for this financial year. In FY22, the portal recorded a gross merchandise value (GMV) of $14.2 billion. In comparison, Amazon India clocked a GMV of $17 billion while Flipkart clocked $23 billion.

As global public e-procurement portals go, only the portals of South Korea and Singapore rank higher. Both have been operational for over a decade.

GeM CEO Prashant Kumar Singh says the portal is on track for faster growth.

“We had targeted for Rs 1.5 lakh crore in this fiscal, but we may go way beyond that limit. In terms of number of transactions that are done, GeM is the largest government procurement in the world with 1.3 crore transactions completed short while back. GeM will easily be number one in value terms soon given its growth,” Singh said.

Average daily orders on the portal have almost doubled in FY23 compared to FY21. While its current mandate is only to meet the requirements of Central and State governments, government departments, PSUs and co-operatives, the GeM is looking to evolve and grow.

Currently, the Defence Ministry is its largest procurer among central ministries, followed by the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas. Among PSUs, IOC and SAIL are the largest participants. And among states, Gujarat, UP, Maharashtra, and MP lead the list of procurers.

But the GeM expects to cross bigger milestones soon.

“We will have to demonstrate the trust in ecosystem, once we get that, sky is the limit. We are trying to engage with other bigger states who aren't procuring via GeM. So, in next 6-7 months, figures for GeM-based procurement across states will see higher growth,” Singh said.

With integrated payments, a fully established audit trail and fast track procurement enabling direct purchase up to order values of Rs 25,000, the government estimates it will see savings of upto Rs 11,500 crore in FY22 — all thanks to the value delivered through procuring on the GeM portal.