UP logs GMV of Rs 7,000 crore on GeM portal

Virendra Singh Rawat

Lucknow / Jan 22, 2021

The Uttar Pradesh government has logged more than Rs 7,000 crore in gross merchandise value (GMV) on GeM (Government e-Marketplace) platform in the last four years.

Of total public procurement of Rs 7,177 crore on GeM so far, the different UP governments had procured goods and services worth Rs 2,500 crore in the current 2020-21 financial year alone.

GeM is an end-to-end e-market, where common user goods and services can be procured by various government organisations, including ministries, departments, public sector undertakings (PSU), autonomous bodies etc.

The Centre had also feted the UP government with the Best Buyer Award in 2018 and Super Buyer Award in 2019. UP and Maharashtra are among the top GeM procuring states in India.

According to a UP government spokesperson, the state departments had made purchases of Rs 602 crore in 2017-18, which increased to Rs 1,674 crore and Rs 2,401 crore in 2018-19 and 2019-20 financial years respectively.

“The state government is pursuing a policy of zero tolerance for corruption. The government is committed to ending corruption completely and its efforts are also being appreciated at the national level,” UP additional chief secretary, MSME, Navneet Sehgal said here today. The MSME department is the nodal agency for such purchases.

After the formation of the Yogi Adityanath government in March 2017, a government order had mandated the purchases by the UP departments and their subordinate institutions through GeM. “The process reflected transparency as well as eliminating the human interface in the purchases naturally diminishing the chances of corruption,” he noted.

Meanwhile, MSME chamber Indian Industries Association (IIA) said the GeM portal was beneficial to both the government and the entrepreneurs.

“Bringing transparency in government departmental procurement and ending corruption is also exemplary for other states. The aim of the government was that the MSMEs get the right rates without any corruption and the right people participate,” IIA president Pankaj Gupta said.

Till December 2020, 71,814 sellers were registered with the GeM portal, of which 26,029 were MSMEs.