Virendra Singh Rawat
Lucknow / Dec 4, 2021
With shopping worth more than Rs 15,000 crore, Uttar Pradesh continues to occupy the top position for procurement of goods and services over the Government e-Marketplace (GeM) portal.
Facilitated by the Centre, GeM is an end-to-end e-market, where common user goods and services can be procured by the different central and state government organisations and wings viz. ministries, departments, public sector undertakings (PSU), autonomous bodies etc.
According to UP additional chief secretary, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) and export promotion, Navneet Sehgal, the state has so far procured goods and services worth almost Rs 5,945 crore over GeM. The net procurement by UP over the past four years tops Rs 15,354 crore.
“The transparent procurement through GeM portal has curbed the possibility of irregularities and improprieties in government purchases,” he noted. Earlier, UP had won the Best Buyer Award in 2018 and Super Buyer Award in 2019.
The GMV (gross merchandise value) of UP government in 2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2020-21 stood at over Rs 602 crore, Rs 1,674 crore, Rs 2,401 crore and Rs 4,675 crore respectively.
Currently, there are about 124,000 sellers, including 59,000 MSME vendors, apart from 12,200 buyers registered with the GeM portal in UP.
Sehgal informed now GeM has incorporated the facility of forward auction and e-auction on its platform, which will ease the trading of obsolete machinery, farm and forest items, metal and non-metal scrap, e-waste, vehicles, lube, waste oil, unused spares, coal, commercial and residential property, land etc.