New norms for GeM portal: Products must disclose country of origin, local content

New Delhi: The government has decided to make certain changes in Government e-Marketplace (GeM) portal keeping with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision to promote domestic items through the ‘Vocal for local’.

Under the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative, the GeM portal will have norms that will make local procurement, local sourcing and promotion more competitive.

Government has made it compulsory for all products to be labelled with the country of origin. All new and old products must declare their country of origin. The government will give reminders to those companies who don’t comply with the norm. If they still fail to declare the country of origin, the government will withdraw the product from GeM portal.

Furthermore, it will also become mandatory for the companies to declare as to how much content has been sourced locally. All the products will have to declare their local contents.

The GeM will also have a ‘make in India’ filter so that the buyers have an option to buy products which have declared 50 percent locally sourced content.

Buyers can reserve auction for class one local supplier based on local content. For auction worth Rs 200, only class one and class two suppliers can participate.

For class one, suppliers must stick to over 50 percent locally sourced content while class two supplier can give over 20 percent local content.

GeM is the one stop e-Market Place hosted by DGS&D where common user goods and services can be procured. GeM is dynamic, self-sustaining and user friendly portal for making procurement by government officers.