As soon as the Union Cabinet allowed cooperatives to do procurement as buyers on the Government e-Marketplace GeM portal, the cooperators raised the demand for permitting co-ops as sellers also.
Commenting on this development, Sahakar Bharati Founder Chairman Satish Marathe wrote, “Co-ops also need to be onboarded as Sellers. Co-ops, particularly, those engaged in manufacturing & processing need equal opportunities. Only then it will be Ease of Doing Business in the real sense”.
“There are many co-ops which can provide the services to the government department, if they can be allowed to register themselves as sellers. Sugar co-ops, Dairy Co-ops, many co-ops hospitals and others can give the services”, said Marathe.
Union Cooperation Minister Amit Shah said that this move will benefit 27 crore people associated with 8.5 lakh cooperatives. The micro and medium small industries will get buyers and it will boost the prospects of Vocal for Local and Atma Nirbhar Bharat (self-sufficient India), he tweeted.
The Ministry of Cooperation wanted the Cooperative Societies to be allowed to procure goods and services from GeM as it is already adequately developed as a one stop portal to facilitate online procurement of common use Goods and Services.
It is transparent, efficient, has economy of scale and is speedy in procurement. In the above context, allowing Cooperative Societies to register on GeM as Buyers of Goods & Services required by them would help Cooperatives in getting competitive prices through an open and transparent process, reads a release from PIB.
The Government e Marketplace (GeM) was launched on August 9, 2016 by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India 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 in pursuance of the approval of the Union Cabinet accorded on 12th April, 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. As per existing mandate, GeM is not available for use by private sector buyers. Suppliers (sellers) can be from across all segments: government or private.
The GeM SPV has made significant strides since its inception. The Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) has grown with a CAGR of over 84.5% from FY 2018-19 to FY 2021-22. The portal has delivered 178% growth in GMV in the FY 2021-22 and has crossed INR 1 lakh Crore in FY 2021-22 alone, which is higher than the cumulative GMV till FY 2020-21.