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Government Eyeing Rs 50,000-Crore Of Public Procurement Through E-Marketplace In FY20

Over two lakh sellers are offering more than eight lakh products on the GeM platform.



A weaver displays ten rupees Indian banknotes for a photograph in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. (Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg)
A weaver displays ten rupees Indian banknotes for a photograph in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. (Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg)

Public procurement worth Rs 50,000 crore is expected to take place through Government e-Marketplace during 2019-20, an official said.

In 2018-19, commerce ministry's online marketplace GeM touched the Rs 17,325 crore mark in terms of value of transactions, compared to Rs 5,885 crore in the previous financial year and Rs 422 crore in 2016-17.

"We are targeting Rs 50,000 crore worth of transactions to be carried out through this platform in 2019-20," the official said.

The ministry launched the GeM on Aug. 9, 2016 with the objective of creating an open and transparent procurement platform for government departments, ministries and agencies.

Meanwhile, the commerce ministry, in a statement on Monday, said 2018-19 has witnessed a multifold increase in total value of transactions on the portal and doubling of number of sellers on the marketplace.

It said over two lakh sellers are offering more than eight lakh products on the platform.

It added that training of over 1.3 lakh buyers and sellers has been conducted across 28 states and Union Territories to enable them to operate on the platform seamlessly.

"MoUs have been signed with 12 banks for payment integration to facilitate a cashless and paperless payment system on the platform," the ministry said.

Public procurement of the Central and State governments runs into over Rs 2 lakh crore annually.