GeM portal is proving to be effective for Uttarakhand, did business of more than ₹ 13 crore

The central government is now going to take more strict steps regarding Government e Marketplace regarding transactions with the government. The Union Minister has written a letter to the Uttarakhand government regarding 100% better use of the GeM portal. At the same time, the officials of the Center have also met the Chief Minister and officials of Uttarakhand.

More than two and a half crore orders on GeM platform: The country’s Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal wrote to Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami regarding the official use of GeM portal in the state. In which it was said that since the inception of GeM, trade worth Rs 13.4 lakh crore has been done on this platform with more than two and a half crore orders, which shows its success rate. So far, more than 11 thousand product categories and about 350 service categories are registered on the GeM portal. Not only this, to widely increase the use of GeM, the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry has also signed an MOU with all the states, which is a big step towards procurement reform under Rule 149 of the General Financial Rule (GFR), 2017. Due to this, today all the states together have met the demand of products and services worth more than Rs 72.4 lakh crore. More than 50% of which is from MSME.

Limited share of GeM in Uttarakhand: The Union Minister has expressed grief in his letter that the Government e-Market Place has been available for the last 9 years, but despite that, the share of GeM in all the departments of the state government, public sector undertakings, local bodies and literary institutions remains limited. The biggest reason for this, he has said, is the technical aspects between the procurement policy of the state governments and the General Financier Rule 2017 and some financial rules of the state. He has appealed to the Uttarakhand government to make necessary changes in its financial management and procurement policy. He also gave the example of Uttar Pradesh, where on 26 November 2024, the Uttar Pradesh government has implemented a government order and fully aligned its procurement rules with GFR, 2017 and GeM’s General Terms and Conditions (GTC).

90 thousand sellers registered on GeM in Uttarakhand: Talking about the Government e-market platform in Uttarakhand, more than 90,000 sellers from the state of Uttarakhand are registered on GeM. During the last financial year 24-25, sellers of Uttarakhand did a business of 4 thousand crores. In which 35 percent was of MSME. GeM gives local sellers an opportunity to do business in government departments across India. According to government data, out of 4000 crores, only 400 crores have been earned by the traders from the state government, only one percent has been earned from the state, the rest 99% has been earned by the entrepreneurs of Uttarakhand from other states or from the Center. Despite the state government making it mandatory to buy goods and services through GeM, the state’s purchase value from the GeM portal in the last financial year was only Rs 735 crore. This is happening even though the state PSUs have purchased expensive goods outside GeM and are incurring clear losses.