Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal has said that the government e-Market (GeM) platform is working with the Indian Railways to enable it to make its annual procurement from sellers registered on the online site. This move could potentially lead to a yearly saving of ₹10,000 crore for the public sector enterprise, he said.

The Railways spends about ₹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 per cent, which is almost ₹10,000 crore, the Minister said at the fourth edition of the National Public Procurement Conclave, organised by GeM and industry body CII on Sunday.

The Minister said that besides saving money, the integration will save manpower and also bring in more efficiency and transparency in the system, according to an official release.

GeM, a game changer

GeM, which is an online procurement platform for Central and State bodies, has become a game changer for the procurement mechanism of the government and more buyers and sellers must join the system, he said.

Goyal said that he was confident that GeM will unlock the value and save money for the nation’s development, as it helps in putting in place 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.

The government’s decision to ask the buyers to pay interest for delayed payments in GeM is a significant step, the Minister said.

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

The CII’s offer to partner with GeM and expand its reach to the nook and corner of the country was welcome, he added.