Sellers who do not declare local content percentage while uploading their products at public procurement portal GeM will lose out on business and will not be able to participate in bids in which buyer has chosen to procure only made-in-India items, the commerce ministry said on Wednesday.
The Government e-Marketplace (GeM) portal was launched in 2016 for online purchase of goods and services by all central and state government ministries and agencies.
The Ministry also said GeM was the first e-commerce portal in the country which had started displaying the ‘country of origin’ of all products prominently for giving its buyers the right to make informed decisions of procurement.
Now, it is mandatory for all sellers to upfront declare the ‘country of origin’, without which they cannot upload products on the platform.
“Going a step further, GeM has also started highlighting the local content % (percentage) on the product description page prominently.
“So, even within the products made in India, buyers can identify products that have higher local content and take informed decisions accordingly,†it said.
Buyers have been provided with a filter in the marketplace to identify and select products from among MII (make in India) complaint sellers/ products only, it said.
“Sellers who do not declare local content % (percentage) while uploading product and creating catalogue on GeM will lose out on business and will not be able to participate in bids in which the buyer has chosen to procure only MII-compliant products,†it added.
In the portal, a MII filter has been provided using which a buyer can filter out all non-local suppliers and restrict its procurements under direct purchase and L-1 (lowest bid) purchase from among local suppliers only.
Informing about the portal, Commerce Secretary Anup Wadhawan said it is providing increasing market access to seller groups like MSEs (micro and small enterprises), women self-help groups (SHGs), and start-ups.
Currently, GeM has over 6,90,000 MSE sellers and service providers and they contribute over 56 per cent of the total order value on the platform.
Speaking with reporters, GeM Chief Executive Officer P K Singh said there are 9,980 start-ups registered on GeM currently.He said that to address the credit access challenges faced by MSMEs, GeMSAHAY app has been rolled out.
