GeM: MSE seller base on Amazon of govt buying jumps 129% in 12 months; this many new MSEs listed

Ease of Doing Business for MSMEs: The share of micro and small sellers (MSE) selling on Modi government’s public procurement portal — Government e-Marketplace (GeM) out of total seller base including medium and large businesses has jumped 3 per cent in October 2020 from the year-ago period. The share of 55,193 MSE sellers out of total 2,88,605 sellers as on October 12, 2019, stood at 19.12 per cent. This has increased to 22.44 per cent by 1,26,757 MSE sellers out of overall 5,64,621 sellers as on October 5, 2020, according to the latest and last year data sourced from GeM. The MSE seller count, hence, jumped 129 per cent during the said period with 71,564 new sellers listing on the portal in the past 12 months.

Moreover, the number of orders made, according to the portal in October 2019 stood at 25.12 lakh with a transaction value of Rs 35,462 crore wherein 49 per cent of the total order value came from MSE sellers. Over the last 12 months, the order volume has also jumped 89 per cent to 47,48,582 with a transaction value of Rs 65,222 crore — up by 83 per cent. The MSEs contribution in the total order value also increased to 58.03 per cent.

Government buying from MSEs has increased, though marginally by 3-4 per cent year-on-year, even as the procurement for FY 21 so far (out of overall buying) has been higher than in previous years. From 23.11 per cent in 2017-18, the buying went up to 26.32 per cent in 2018-19, 30.95 per cent in 2019-20 and 33.86 per cent till date, data from MSME Sambandh portal showed.

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Urging government buying from MSEs has been a part of the government’s Vendor Development Programmes, which offers a common platform, for buyers and sellers to interact with each other for identifying emerging demands of buyers and enable MSEs to showcase their goods and services. As of October 5, 2020, government departments, ministries, others have procured goods worth Rs 31,476 crore out of which goods worth Rs 10,659.11 crore have been procured from MSEs. The MSE procurement included 0.77 per cent goods worth Rs 241 crore bought from SC/ST entrepreneurs owned MSEs and 0.74 per cent goods amounting to Rs 232.36 crore purchased from women MSEs.