Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal today called upon Government e-Marketplace (GeM) to expand its scope and include more participants in GeM portal for public procurement of products and services. He said, that it should provide opportunities to MSMEs to showcase their products. Mr. Goyal added that the portal should be cautious against cartelization by sellers.
 
Mr. Goyal stressed that integration of GeM with the Railway e-procurement system towards the Unified Procurement System for buyers should be done expeditiously. He said, this will usher in a lot of savings for the public exchequer. The Minister said that this will
also pave the way for big-ticket procurements by the Petroleum and Steel sectors.
 
Commerce Minister said that the pilot bidding of Railways buyers through integrated system is expected to commence by August end. The Minister said that about 50 thousand crore rupees worth annual procurement may be done by the Railways on GeM following the integration.