Direct govt purchases play a diminishing role in GeM transactions

Value of transactions has crossed over Rs 2 trillion in 2022-23

The biggest drivers for transactions on the government's procurement portal are not the direct purchases that state governments or central ministries make.

The value of transactions on Government e-Marketplace (GeM) hit Rs 2 trillion, the value of products and services doubling from 2021-22. This represents an increase of over ten times from the value of such transactions before the pandemic (chart 1).

The share of state governments in the overall procurement has been coming down. Their procurement accounted for 53 per cent of the gross merchandise value as of 2018-19. Data as of February shows that this is