Exploring the Benefits: Unveiling the Advantages of the GeM Portal

Blogging Syllabus

Advantages of GeM Portal

* Meaning * 

GeM is a short form of one stop Government e-Market Place hosted by DGS&D where common user goods and services can be procured. GeM is dynamic, self sustaining and user friendly portal for making procurement by Government officers. Public procurement forms a very important part of Government activity and reform in Public Procurement is one of the top priorities of the present Government. Government e-Marketplace (GeM - gem.gov.in) is a very bold step of the Government with the aim to transform the way in which procurement of goods and services is done by the Government Ministries and Departments, Public Sector Undertakings and other apex autonomous bodies of the Central Government. 

Government e-Marketplace (GeM) is the Public Procurement Portal for procurement of goods and services for all Central Government and State Government Ministries, Departments, Public Sector Units (PSUs) and affiliated. GeM endeavours to make public procurement process transparent, efficient and inclusive.

The GeM is marketplace based public procurement portal with following the exclusive offering making it unique and superior portal than its peers.

* Background * 

Government e-Marketplace owes its genesis to the recommendations of two Groups of Secretaries made to the Prime Minister in January 2016. They recommended setting up of a dedicated e-market for different goods & services procured or sold by Government/PSUs besides reforming DGS&D. Subsequently, the Finance Minister in his Budget speech for FY 2016-17, announced setting up of a technology driven platform to facilitate procurement of goods and services by various Ministries and agencies of the Government.

DGS&D with technical support of National eGovernance Division (Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology) has developed GeM portal for procurement of both Products & Services. The portal was launched on 9th August 2016 by the Commerce & Industry Minister. Procurement on GeM has been authorized by General Financial Rules by making necessary changes in government rules. Presently more than 7400 products in about 150 product categories and hiring of transport service are available on GeM POC portal. Transactions for more than Rs 140 Crore have already been processed through GeM.

GeM is a completely paperless, cashless and system driven e-market place that enables procurement of common use goods and services with minimal human interface.

* Characteristics of GeM portal *:-

1. Category and catalogue based procurement portal
2. Wide varieties of procurement modes, DP, L1, PBP, Bid/RA

3. Automated rule based system driven enforcement of MSE and MII provisions.
4. Unique Bid representation module where a sellers can raise representation against a bid available in public domain.
5. Unique challenge rejection window for bidders: All disqualified bidders get right to challenge their bid rejection. Buyer cannot proceed further without replying to the
challenge It is increasing transparency.
6. Advance analytics for the decision support system and fraud and anomaly detection.
7. Furthermore the process of procurement is faceless and transparent in which sellers identity is not reviled till opening of L1.
8. The process of registration and product/service offering on GeM is complete online and free.
9. The GeM provides opportunity to MSEs, startup and women entrepreneurs to get register on GeM and participate in bids and get preferences as per procurement
policies as applicable and enforceable.

Following are the advantages of GeM It acts as a centralized and unified public procurement platform for government buyer organizations and suppliers of goods and services, accompanied by:

• Policy reforms for current processes of public procurement ecosystem
• Driving Inclusiveness and Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) with the government (especially for smaller organizations such as MSMEs)
• Standardization of processes backed by the regulatory framework
• A fully automated system enabled through advances technologies

* Why buy on GeM? * 

• Provide transparency and ease of buying
• Offers rich listing of products for individual category of goods/services
• Direct purchase for amounts upto INR 25000
• L1 purchase for amounts greater than INR 25000 and less than INR 5 Lakhs
• Proprietary Article Certificate Bid- Procurement of specific product as per requirement
• Price Trends and Price Comparison From Multiple Suppliers
• Continuous vendor rating system
• Direct notifications to sellers
• Integrated Payment System
• Easy to comprehend interface to search, compare, select and buy
• User friendly dashboard for monitoring supplies and payments
• Online grievance redressal mechanism for quick resolution
• Direct purchase, L1, Push button procurement, Bid/RA mode of procurement and forward auction for auction.
• Easy return policy
• GeM has enriched listing of approximately 10000 products categories and 290 services categories wherein millions of sellers have offered their catalogue.
• Buyers can now select bid duration between 3 & 45 days.
• Delivery period upto 365 days and upto 6 years with approval.
• Option to provide multiple consignee locations and quantity
• Multiple consignee can be selected for Services
• Pin-code based seller selection for Direct Purchase Mode
• ATC library available for addition of terms and conditions
• Buying goods and services as and when required
• Additional Deductions can be applied by buyers at the time of bill generation
• Notification to buyers regarding:

1.         Expiry of DP (Delivery Period) for the contract
2.         Initiation of cancellation of contract in case of non-delivery by sellers

• Buyer during technical evaluation can make a MSE seller eligible or ineligible for MSE purchase preference.
• Now buyers get the option to cancel the Product contract(s) even if the invoice has been generated by seller provided 15 days have expired from delivery period.
• 18 Banks have enabled GeM Pool Account
• To improve fair participation in Bid / RA, GeM now ensures that at least 3 sellers have participated and offered products from at least 2 different OEMs.In case buyer wants to proceed with less than 3 Resellers or two OEMs/Brand, they have to upload approval from Competent Authority

* Why sell on GeM? *

• Access to National Public Procurement market
• No charges or fee for getting registered
• Special provisions and sections for startups, MSMEs and Emporium products
• Fully online, paperless and contactless platform
• One stop shop for marketing with minimal efforts
• A list of prerequisites for the seller registration has been made available so that it becomes a guide to the seller during registration https://gem.gov.in/support/sellers/?lang=english
• Brand application and brand approval process has been revamped for sellers
• Multiple invoice for single order 
• New Product Suggestion facility available to Sellers
• Easy access to participate in bids/reverse auction
• Clock has been enabled in RA to display remaining time for seller participation
• Consistent and uniform purchase procedures
• Online grievance redressal mechanism for quick resolution
• All sellers will be shown reasons for rejection
• Seller friendly dashboard for monitoring supplies & payments
• Business Cockpit has been enhanced with additional parameters in existing report as well as new chart widgets based on OEM and MAIT recommendations
• Seller belonging to North East states and J & K are exempted from ITR at the time of bid participation
• Dynamic Pricing- Price can be changed based on market conditions
• Direct access to Government departments and their organizations.

*GeM brings in Transparency*

GeM eliminates human interface in vendor registration, order placement and payment processing, to a great extent. Being an open platform, GeM offers no entry barriers to bonafide suppliers who wish to do business with the Government. At every step, SMS and e-Mail notifications are sent to both buyer, his/her head of organization, paying authorities as well as sellers. Online, cashless and time bound payment on GeM is facilitated through integration with PFMS and State Bank Multi Option System (SBMOPS); web-services integration is being extended to payment systems of Railways, Defence, major PSUs and State Governments. Seamless processes and online time-bound payment, which is also mandated by the Department of Expenditure, has given confidence to the vendors and reduced their 'administrative' cost involved in pursuing officers for timely payment.

*GeM enhances Efficiency*

Direct purchase on GeM can be done in a matter of minutes and the entire process in online, end to end integrated and with online tools for assessing price reasonability. For procurements of higher value, the bidding/Reverse Auction (RA) facility on GeM is among the most transparent and efficient, in comparison to e-procurement systems in vogue within the Government sector. For creating a bid/RA, the buyer does not need to create his/her own technical specifications as they have been standardized on GeM. The bid/RA can be created in a matter of minutes and finalized within a minimum of 7 days. The bid/RA is notified via e-mail and SMS to all the eligible suppliers; new suppliers are also notified once they get themselves registered online on GeM and are determined as 'eligible' by the system. GeM bidding/RA therefore ensures competition, fair play, speed & efficiency and leads to proper price discovery. The reasonableness of the rates can also be confirmed through online comparison with market price on leading e-Commerce portals.

*GeM is Secure and safe*

GeM is a completely secure platform and all the documents on GeM are e-Signed at various stages by the buyers and sellers. The antecedents of the suppliers are verified online and automatically through MCA21, Aadhar and PAN databases. In addition, SEBI empaneled credit rating agencies are also being used for conducting third-party assessment of suppliers. This would further strengthen due diligence about the veracity of suppliers wanting to do business on GeM. For high value bids/RA on GeM, an e-

Bank Guarantee is also being introduced.

GeM is a far better system than the existing one which relies more on financial instruments (EMD in case of tenders for large procurements only) to guarantee good conduct by the suppliers. In the existing system, there is zero check on the antecedents of the suppliers for small value procurements (upto Rs 1 lakh) whose cumulative value is huge across the Government organizations. GeM does a 100% online verification of all vendors irrespective of the value of procurement.

*Potential to support Make in India*

On GeM, the filters for selecting goods which are Preferential Market Access (PMA) compliant and those manufactured by Small Scale Industries(SSI), enables the Government buyers to procure Make in India and SSI goods very easily. Easily accessible MIS also enables the administrators and policy makers to easily and effectively enforce the Government regulations on PMA and SSI sourcing. After the launch of GeM it has been noticed that several leading computer manufacturers have placed PMA compliant products on GeM.

*Savings to the Government*

The transparency, efficiency and ease of use of the GeM portal has resulted in a substantial reduction in prices on GeM, in comparison to the tender, Rate Contract and direct purchase rates. The average prices on GeM are lower by atleast 15-20%, and in some cases even upto 56%. GeM is also doing Demand Aggregation for items that are to be procured by various Central/State Government Departments. Demand Aggregation is expected to further drive the prices south, by way of standardization of specifications and economy of scale. Demand aggregation for most of the common use goods and services is estimated to result in annual savings to the tune of Rs 40,000 Crore per annum.

If pursued to its logical conclusion, GeM would eventually emerge as the National Public Procurement Portal, keeping in tune with the Global best practices; most of the OECD countries, like USA, South Korea, UK, Singapore etc, have a single NPPP and as a result annual savings of billions of dollars are made in public procurement, besides giving a fillip to the domestic industry.

Requirement for Buyer Registration on GeM is as follow :-

For Primary/HOD (In the pay scale of Rs. 6,600/- and above) User Registration Go to URL www.gem.gov.in and enter following :-

• Government email id – (NIC/GOV/GeM)
• Aadhaar number
• Active Mobile number to which your Aadhaar is linked – for OTP purpose.
• Verification Authority – Name, E-Mail ID (GOV/NIC)

For Secondary User (Buyer/Consignee/Payment Authority) Registration

• Government email id - (NIC/GOV/GeM)
• Aadhaar number
• Active Mobile number to which your Aadhaar is linked – for OTP purpose.

Requirement for Registration on GeM is as follow (Go to URLwww.gem.gov.in) :-

• Aadhaar number
• Active Mobile number to which your Aadhaar is linked – for OTP purpose.
• A Manufacturer would need his Aadhaar number, UAN, GSTN/PAN if financial turnover is greater than Rs. 20 lakhs or Manufacturer will provide Aadhar/PAN/UAN and Bank details if financial turnover is less than or equal to Rs. 20 lakhs.
• Seller/Service provider should submit his aadhar number/GSTN/PAN if financial turnover is more than Rs. 20 lakh. In case of turnover less than 20 lakhs he/she will have to submit aadhar number, PAN number and Bank Account details.
• The Manufacturer/Seller/Service provider needs to visit the GeM portal for registration and select the ITR (4/5/6) type, provide assessment year and acknowledgement number .
• If it is a firm, he/she needs to provide PAN and if it is a company, he/she needs to provide CIN.
• A Manufacturer/Seller can register himself as a Seller and Service Provider by selecting the ‘Both’ option.
• If you are registering as a firm, a company or a start up; date of formation and ITR acknowledgement of last assessment year is mandatory to verify your account. This is necessary for real time verification of credentials and other details.
• In case of partnership firm, you may register under the category of Firm.
• In case of new setup, Manufacturer/Seller/Service provider must provide a CA Null certificate of ITR.

Seller Registration Process :-

• The Manufacturer/Reseller/Service provider must visit the website www.gem.gov.in and click Signup Icon. Later on click on seller option.
• Manufacturer/Reseller/Service provider will enter Aadhar number and Aadhar linked mobile number to get OTP (One Time password) on mobile number. The received OTP must be entered in the OTP box for verification.
• Select the company constitutions type of business entity (Proprietorship/Partnership/Trust/Society/Company).
• Furnish your PAN number and the E-mail Id.
• Select type of function of Business.

1.            Select 'Seller' if he/she offers only product
2.            Select 'Service Provider' if he/she offers only services
3.            Select 'Both' if he/she offer both product and services

• Verify business entity (Manufacturer/Reseller/Service provider).
• Based on the type of entity, furnish the required financial details(Acknowledgement Number of ITR 4/5/6).
• For new entity CA Null/Nil Certificate is required.
• Create your User ID & Password
• Upload specification and picture of the products with three different angles

**KEEP VISITING THE BLOG FOR UPDATE ON THE FOLLOWING

 Government e-Marketplace benefits
GeM Portal advantages for businesses
Procurement efficiency on GeM
Cost savings with GeM
GeM Portal perks for vendors
Digital procurement advantages
Online government procurement benefits
GeM platform perks
E-commerce for government procurement
GeM Portal features
Benefits of GeM for SMEs
GeM Portal advantages explained
Unique benefits of Government e-Marketplace
GeM advantages for startups
GeM benefits for MSMEs
Government eMarketplace benefits analysis
GeM Portal advantages review
Advantages and benefits of GeM
GeM benefits breakdown
Benefits of using the GeM Portal

**FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS AND THEIR ANSWERS ON GeM PORTAL

*Q.1. What is GeM portal used for?*
  A.1. GEM Portal, short for Government e-Marketplace, is a one-stop online platform for government procurement in India. Launched in 2016 by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, it aims to promote transparency, efficiency, and inclusiveness in the procurement process for government agencies and public sector undertakings.
*Q.2. Is GeM Portal free?*
   A.2. If you want to register as a buyer or seller on the GeM portal, the registration is absolutely free of cost. The government of India does not charge you anything for registering. However, if you have appointed a consultant or an agent who is registering on your behalf, you will have to pay their consultancy fee.
*Q.3. Who is owner of GeM Portal?*
  A.3. The platform is owned by GeM SPV (Special Purpose Vehicle) which is a 100 percent Government-owned, non-profit company under the Ministry of Commerce and Industries, Government of India.
*Q.4. What is the annual charge of GeM?*
  A.4. This feature of Business cockpit will be available to OEMs on GeM at annual subscription charges of INR 6,00,000/- plus GST. NOTE: CPSE to CPSE contracts: No Transaction Charges are payable if the Buyer as well as the Seller in contract are CPSEs.
*Q.5. Who is CEO of GeM?*
   A.5. Prashant Kumar Singh is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Government e Marketplace (GeM), Government of India.
*Q.6. Who is eligible for GeM?*
  A.6. Manufacturers and authorized dealers: Manufacturers of goods or authorized dealers of goods and services are eligible to register as sellers on the GEM portal. They should have a valid GSTIN (Goods and Services Tax Identification Number)
*Q.7. What are the three pillars of GeM?*
   A.7. It has made significant strides towards the pursuit of its three fundamental pillars, i.e., inclusivity, transparency and efficiency in public procurement, since its launch.
*Q.8. Can anyone buy on GeM?*
   A.8. All Central government and State Government Ministries/ Departments including its attached/ subordinate offices, Central and State autonomous bodies, Central and State Public Sector Units and local bodies etc. are authorized to make procurement through GeM portal.
*Q.9. What is the benefit of GeM registration?*
   A.9. GEM registration helps to authorize the manufacturer, small dealers and service providers to enter the wide and interactive online platform, where they can directly sell their products & services to various buyers from the government departments, organizations and PSUs.
*Q.10. Is GST mandatory for GeM registration?*
  A.10. Yes, GST is mandatory for GeM registration. The necessary papers required for GEM Registration are as follows: PAN Card and Aadhar Card. GST Certification. Email ID and Mobile Number.
*Q.11. What is the limit of GeM purchase?*

  A.11. GFR rule 149 allows direct on-line purchases on GeM up to Rs. 25,000/- through any of the available suppliers on the GeM, meeting the requisite quality, specification and delivery period. However this is subject to procuring authorities certifying the reasonability of rates.
*Q.12. What is the minimum turnover for GeM portal?*
   A.12. Minimum average annual turnover of bidder should be Rs. 10 lakhs during last three financial years (i.e. 2019-20, 2020-21& 2021-22 supported by documentary proof/audited or CA certified statement of accounts. (Furnish copies of audited balance sheets and profit & loss account statements).
*Q. 13. Which Ministry is GeM under?*

  A.13. Ministry of Commerce and Industry is under GeM.

*Q.14. Is GeM portal mandatory?*
  A.14. With the 6/18/2019-PPD dated 23rd January, 2020 of Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance, procurement of common goods and services through GeM has been made mandatory for product/service categories available on GeM in compliance to Rule 149 of GFR 2017, as amended vide OM mentioned above.

*Q.15. What is red buyer in GeM?*

  A.15. "Buyer Payment Status: Red" is mentioned against those Buyers who have not released payments of more than 30 orders and CRAC has been generated for more than 70 days.
*Q.16. Can a seller reject order in GeM?*
  A. 16. All orders for goods shall be deemed to be an offer by the Buyer to purchase goods pursuant to these Terms and Conditions and are subject to acceptance by the Seller. The Seller may choose not to accept an order for any reason.