GeM sees UPI-like surge in adoption; 100% growth to ₹1.53 lakh cr in FY23

National public procurement portal Government e-Marketplace (GeM) will see a 100% jump in the value of transactions taking place through the online platform in 2022-23 on a year-on-year basis. The portal has already witnessed transactions worth ₹1.53 lakh crore (till February 1, 2023) in FY23 as against ₹78,228 crore worth of transactions that happened during the same period in FY22.

According to P K Singh, CEO, GeM, the value of services ordered through the portal is growing faster than product procurement by central government departments, central public sector enterprises and state governments this year. While products having gross merchandise value (GMV) ₹98,602 crore were purchased through the portal till February 1 during FY23, services accounted for ₹54,831 crore. There was a 123% jump in the services GMV from last FY in just 10 months of the current financial year.

Among the orders, the biggest one came from NTPC, which placed orders worth ₹20,402 crore for mine development & operations for 25 years. NTPC has also placed ash & coal transportation bids worth more than ₹1,800 crore through the portal. Orders worth ₹500 crores have been finalised and the rest are in the technical and financial evaluation stage, Singh says.

The Ministry of Health placed ₹3,800 crore worth of orders for procuring vaccines to be administered under the government’s immunization programme. The top five central ministries (including the public sector enterprises under its administrative control) in terms of orders during the year were Ministry of Power (₹25,544 crore), Ministry of Defence (₹22,081 crore), Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (₹21,646 crore), Ministry of Steel (₹10,518 crore) and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (₹6,041 crore).

Singh points out that there has been a 72% growth in the number of orders placed on GeM by various State Governments - from 6.88 lakh orders in March-Jan 2021-22 to 11.8 lakh orders for the corresponding period in 2022-2023.

As on February 1, the coverage universe of GeM had 11,268 product categories with more than 29 lakh products and 278 service categories that offered over 2.5 lakh services. The portal also had 59,662 buyers and 4,584,970 sellers registered on the portal. Among services, Group Mediclaim Insurance order worth ₹1,120 crore placed by National Rural Health Mission, Gujarat was the largest for the year. “Manpower outsourcing services more than worth Rs 10,000 crore was procured through GeM in current fiscal. Bid worth ₹1,000 crore was published by Canara Bank for hiring of System Integrator for Core Banking Solution during the period”, Singh says.

The future growth of GeM will come by bringing all forms of government procurement under the portal getting all states, municipalities and even village panchayats as buyers on the platform, Singh adds.