Union Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal on Sunday called upon more and more buyers and sellers to join the system.

Inaugurating the Fourth edition of the National Public Procurement Conclave [NPPC], the minister said that GeM will be able to unlock the value and save money for the nation’s development, he said that it has helped in transparent, seamless, easy, efficient and faster procurements.

All the information is available at one place, and any outlier trying to manipulate the system can be easily identified, he said, adding that said that the Government’s decision to ask the buyers to give interest for delayed payments in GeM is a significant step.

At the same time, he also cautioned the unscrupulous sellers from pushing the poor quality goods or charging exorbitant prices, as they will not only be blacklisted from the GeM portal but from the entire Government ecosystem, he said.

Goyal welcomed the offer from the CII to partner with GeM and expand the reach to the nook and corner of the country.

He said that GeM has the advantage of being seamless, transparent, open and efficient and technology-driven, and this will gain momentum if more and more buyers and sellers join the system.  More procurement orders will lead to more sellers joining it, leading to more competition, and availability of quality products at cheaper prices. “More the merrier”, said the Minister.

The Minister announced that GeM and Indian railways are working earnestly to integrate the latter’s procurements with the former. He said that the railways presently spend about Rs 70,000 crore per annum on procurements and the integration of the system with the GeM will lead to saving of at least 10-15% which is almost Rs 10,000 Crore.

He said that besides savings of money, the integration will save efforts, manpower and bring in more efficiency and transparency in the system.

Som Parkash, Minister of State in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry said that the Conclave provided an excellent opportunity to Buyers and Sellers to interact. He said Women Entrepreneurs, start-ups, Artisans, Weavers, Self-Help Groups and MSMEs will find such platforms very useful. He called for reduction of Government purchases from outside the Gem system.

Talleen Kumar, CEO, GeM, said that GeM aims to enhance efficiency, transparency, inclusiveness in public procurement and provides the tools of Direct Procurement, e-Bidding, and Reverse Auction to facilitate buyers achieve the best value for their money.

He said that GeM has evolved as an increasingly transparent, efficient and inclusive platform, with MSMEs making up over 57% of the cumulative Gross Merchandise Value on GeM.

The key features of this year’s online conclave include a detailed overview of the enhanced version of GeM – GeM 4.0, followed by virtual panel sessions on role of MSMEs, Startups, Women Entrepreneurs, Weavers & Artisans, etc.