New Delhi, June 1: The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday approved the expansion of the mandate of Government e Marketplace (GeM) by allowing procurement by Cooperatives.
“Over 8.54 lakh registered cooperatives and their 27 crore members would benefit from the decision. The move will help Cooperatives get competitive prices through open and transparent process. GeM portal is open for all the buyers and sellers across the country,” said Union Minister Anurag Singh Thakur.
The validated list of cooperatives to be onboarded on GeM – for pilot as well as subsequent scale up – will be decided by Ministry of Cooperation in consultation with GeM Special Purpose Vehicle. This will ensure that technical capacity and logistics requirement of the GeM system are taken into account while deciding the pace of on boarding of Cooperative as buyers on GeM, a Cabinet release said.
Since the cooperative societies have more than 27 Crore members, procurement through GeM would not only economically benefit the common man, but it would also enhance the credibility of the cooperatives, it added.
The move is also expected to enhance overall Ease of Doing Business for cooperatives, while providing a larger Buyer base to the GeM registered sellers also.
For additional technology infrastructure, training and support resources, GeM may charge an appropriate transaction fee from cooperatives, to be decided in mutual consultation with the Ministry of Cooperation. Such charges shall not be more than the charges which GeM would charge to other Government buyers. The release read.
Government e Marketplace (GeM) was launched on August 9, 2016 by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry to create an open and transparent procurement platform for Government buyers. A Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) by the name of Government e- Marketplace (GeM SPV) was set up as the National Public Procurement Portal on 17th May, 2017.
At present, the platform is open for procurement by all government buyers- central and state ministries, departments, public sector enterprises, autonomous institutions, local bodies etc.
