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Forward Auction

GeM Forward Auction facilitate E-Auction management for Central and State Government Ministries/ Departments, Central & State Public Sector Undertakings (CPSUs & SPSUs), Autonomous Institutions and Local Bodies. Forward Auction programme works to maximise commercial advantages and increase the opportunity for savings across categories of goods/material/immovable assets.

Features:

  • B2C and B2B integrated Auction platform
  • Featuring pan India auctions (Central and State Government Ministries / Departments, Central & State Public Sector Undertakings (CPSUs & SPSUs), Autonomous Institutions and Local Bodies,)
  • Facilitate Auction & Procurement in a single platform

Covid-19

  1. In COVID-related categories, a restriction has been built on price increase where a seller cannot increase their offer price more than 20% of the lowest price in the last 30 days. This has been done to ensure there are no erratic pricing changes in these critical categories.
  2. GeM is taking necessary steps to ensure that we are well prepared to face the threat Covid-19 poses by constantly upgrading the catalogue with products in Covid Medical and Auxiliary categories. Visit page by clicking here.
  3. Click here to read GeM Covid-19 Status Report. 

New COVID-19 related features on GeM

The following interventions have been made by GeM in connection with the fight against COVID-19:

  1. Procurement cycle shortened for COVID-19 related items: Bid Cycle for COVID-19 related categories has been reduced to 3 days from existing 10 days. Buyers would also be able to reduce the Delivery Period for such items to 2 days considering the time critical nature of the items.
  2. Local filter for purchase upto ₹5 lakhs enabled: Buyer will now be able to filter local sellers for purchases upto ₹5 lakhs to enable faster delivery of goods during COVID-19.
  3. Shorter duration bids (3 days) for Services.
  4. New business rule to stock out sellers who do not update stock within 48 hours of notification for specific categories.
  5. New business rule for controlling price increase.
  6. Priority product and brand approval for COVID-19 related categories.
  7. Allowing delivery period extension 30 days beyond expiry of original delivery period.
  8. New webpage for tracking COVID-19 categories and number of sellers.
  9. Buyers would now be able to filter sellers based on Lead Time input for purchases below 5 Lacs ( L1 purchase)
  10. Direct purchase of the same product from the same Seller by the same Buyer within 7 days is now allowed for Covid-19 related categories.
  • RA to be initiated after 24 hours

Some cases have been reported where bidders have claimed non receipt of prior intimation of RA start. In order to ensure that no prospective eligible bidder is left out due to non intimation on time, it has been decide that RA will henceforth start 24 hours after the  buyer proceeds for the RA creation and initiated RA. RA Start date and End Date will be notified to both buyer and sellers.

  • Push Button Procurement (PBP) functionality enhanced – No need for buyer to certify reasonableness of rates:

GeM has enhanced the Push button Procurement functionality enabled as per DoE OM number F.6/7/2022-PPD dated 11th January 2023. The new guidelines for PBP are as follow:


(a) The total procurement value of the specific case may be up to Rs. Five lakhs inclusive of all taxes (No splitting of requirement to be done to bring procurement under this method).

(b) This method will be enabled by GeM only for select categories where at least ten sources are listed, and marketplace is sanitized.

(c) Once PBP bid is invited on GeM, contract will be placed directly by GeM System without any human intervention i.e., no evaluation or rejection of bids by buyer and without any need for buyer to certify reasonableness of price. Provided conditions as per DoE OM are satisfied, which would be checked by GeM system (not by buyer).

(d) GeM system would itself check that at least five bids are received (with minimum two Different brands).

(e) Individual bidders may quote more than reference price of PBP. GeM system would ensure that order is placed only if lowest price received after PBP is below the GeM marketplace price for identical requirements.


Please refer the push button procurement Manual for detailed guidelines. The details of Categories enabled for PBP are available here.

  • Integrations:

GeM integrates with the India post:

Now Sellers can subscribe to India Post services and do online booking of the consignment to be shipped to any pin code in the country.


- Select option to either arrange for a Pickup or drop of the consignment at the India Post office for up to 10 boxes per Consignment.

- Track the status of the shipments booked under India Post Dashboard via the generated tracking id.

- Cancellation provision for the already booked consignment made possible on the click of a button.



  • New User Roles Introduced in GeM:

Indentor Role for Cart Creation:

A new user role is created under HOD on GeM for searching and adding the product to the Cart on GeM Portal.

- The cart can then further be transferred online to the selected buyer for further processing.

Technical Evaluator Role for Bid Evaluation:

GeM has brought in new user role of Technical Evaluator for enabling Technical Members/Tender Committee of the Buyer

for evaluation of Bids.

- This being an optional choice, Buyer can either choose ‘Self-evaluation’ or the ‘Tender committee’


  • Launch of iOS & Android App for GeM Sellers:

GeM is delighted to announce the launch of the latest version of "GeM Seller" app for both Android Play Store and iOS App Store.

Highlights:-

- Both Primary & Secondary Sellers have Access to the App.

- Sellers can now view the Pending Actionable Tasks associated with them w.r.t Orders to be Accepted, Orders to be Delivered, Transaction Charges Pendency and Invoices Pending for Orders etc via this App.

- Sellers can also view the Bid Notifications, Catalogue and Incidents on the click of a button.

- Furthermore, Sellers can easily raise, view and escalate their problems seeking resolution via CRM tickets through this application.

  • Bidding Process:
  • Techno- Commercial Loading in Bids (Load Based Bidding):

    Bids are currently being evaluated on GeM based on the price quoted by the bidder at the time of bid participation. However, there are some use cases when the buyer publishes a bid and expects certain technical and commercial parameters to be used to evaluate the price, resulting in the evaluated price being different from the bidder's offered price. To capture detailed technical and commercial parameters, GeM has added another feature whereby a buyer can declare the Technical and Commercial Loading Criteria for Bid Evaluation during Bid Creation itself, which will be printed for the bidders' reference in the Bid document.

- Buyers can now declare the Techno Commercial Loading Criteria for Bid Evaluation at the time of bid creation (specific-limited categories, as configured by GeM Category Owners). These details shall be printed in the bid document itself for the bidders' reference.

- This feature is designed to remain as an optional choice applicable for procurement through bids alone and is not available for procurement modes such as Direct/L1. If load-based bidding is selected, BID to RA will and ITC based evaluation are disabled with load based bidding.

- Buyer is required to mention the loading criteria and upload a file depicting the buyer(s) calculation when loading the Techno-Commercial parameters.

- Bidders shall have to upload documents like financial and technical document pertaining to the criteria for loading in financial evaluation at the time of Upload documents during Seller Participation. Financial documents shall be visible to the Buyer during financial evaluation alone.

- The buyer can enter the evaluated price post loading for each bidder and notify the Participated Bidders. There is provision for bidder representation and subsequent revision of the evaluated price to account for loading factor(s).

- The buyer(s) must publish final evaluated prices prior to the creation of demand and order processing.

- This Feature will be used by the buyer for the limited categories available in the GeM marketplace.

- Categories where Load based will be applicable - BIOMASS and types of pumps like HSD, Screw , Fuel, Petrol pump

Item wise Evaluation in Services:

- Provision for item wise evaluation is made available for Service Bids.

BOQ Bidding with Multiple Evaluation Methods:

- GeM provides the Purchaser/Buyer with the facility of selection from a variety of Evaluation Methods viz-a-viz Total Value wise, Item wise & Group wise for BOQ based bidding (Estimate Value=>INR 5 Lacs).

- Splitting/MSE-MII Preference selection is now manageable with easy selectable steps.

- Thus the Buyer can now place the desired items at his/her discretion under a particular schedule.

- Flexibility is provided for the Sellers to participate in the desired Schedule at their own discretion without putting restriction in the case of Item/Group wise evaluation thereby expanding the strength of number of Vendor/Seller participants.

Input Tax Credit (ITC) /Reverse Charge Mechanism (RCM):

- Stakeholders can now enjoy the automation implemented for shortlisting lowest evaluated bidder (Price wise) on the Basis of ITC available with the Buyer considering either FCM (Forward Charge Mechanism)/RCM (Reverse Charge Mechanism).

- Buyer can select the percentage of ITC Component available on the GST, GST cess & publish the same in the Tender document for the benefit of all the stakeholders.

- By virtue of this feature the Buyer gets to know through automated calculation & arriving at the Lowest Bidder without having the need to do any offline calculation thus saving the stakeholder’s both time & efforts.

Provision for Uploading Technical Evaluation Report:

- Buyer(s) have been provided with the facility to upload detailed Technical Evaluation Report (TER-Pdf File-Max Size 5 MB-Non-Optional) for both Goods & Services. Thus the Buyer shall now be able to detail out the observations & maintain the Technical comparison sheet which depicts the result of the findings from the demonstrations conducted at the Buyer premises/On Site/Seller’s premises/factory visit etc as put up in the ATC Clause(Buyer added specific ATC Clause) by the Suppliers/Bidders/Sellers all under one roof.

- The TER is an internal document and shall be visible to the Purchaser/Buying authority alone.

Provision for Negotiation(s) with the Lowest (L1) Bidder:

- Buyer(s) have been provided with the facility to carry out Price negotiations with the Lowest (L1) Bidder for both Goods [Product/AMC/CMC] & Services.

- GeM is committed to abiding with the GFR Rule 173 (xiv) so also keeping in line with the CVC guidelines does not indulge in encouragement of negotiations except in ad- hoc conditions with the prior approval of Competent Authority (CA) clearly capturing the reason for undergoing negotiations with the lowest evaluated responsive bidder.

- In line with above viewpoint, GeM has designed an Online Negotiation system possible with the lowest bidder provided approval of CA is in place for such L1 negotiation(s) request.

- Negotiation window duration is kept open for a duration 72 hrs. for the Bidder/Seller to response. Maximum No of Negotiation Attempts permissible being five.

- Negotiations on the discretion of the Purchaser /Buyer can be carried out on the individual prices of the Product to be procured as well on the rates of the AMC/CMC & revised rates for all the components i.e. Products, AMC/CMC can be submitted by the bidder.

Provision for the Buyback:

- In line with the GFR Rule 176, GeM has made it possible for the Purchaser/Buyer to replace an old item(s) with a new & better version by introducing ‘Buyback’ feature in its design System.

- The Buying department can thus trade with the existing old item while purchasing the new one with approval of a Competent Authority (CA).

- Enabled at Category level, this easy to use feature brings forth value addition on the table of the Purchaser expediting the decision making in terms of Net benefit derived in the Procurement deal.

Re-Run Option:

- In case of multiple L1 bidders against a service bid, the buyer will have to use 'Run L1 selection' feature wherein the system would randomly identify a L1 seller. It works on pseudorandom number generator algorithms which is the system generator based on linear congruential algorithm.

- The system selected L1 bidder is required to confirm within 72 hours whether he is willing to execute the contract. If he says “No” or does not reply, system will enable Re-Run L1. This process will continue till the system selected L1 bidder confirms the willingness for execution of contract. Suitable action is taken against the defaulter bidders as per the Incident Management Policy of GeM.

L1 Determination from “Multiple L1” bidders in Services:

- "Run L1” i.e. L1 determination based on Random Algorithm run by GeM, can be executed unlimited number of times by the Buyer.

- The option to place contract on any of the L-1 bidders, manually selected by Buyer is revoked.

- For the bids created with MSE preference as per Public Procurement Policy for Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) Order, 2012, “Run L1” will be executed among “multiple L1” MSE Service Providers only till the last eligible Service Provider remains

MSE Functionality in Services

- GeM brings before you the good news of implementation of MSE Preference for Service orders as available for the Goods too.

- Central government Buyer shall have to upload an approval of competent authority stating the reason for bypassing the MSE Preference.

- While State Government Buyers can also select MSE preference though the selection remains Optional.

- MSE preference provided on the total value including add-on and based on that, price matching will be done on total value.

- If L-1 is not an MSE and MSE Seller (s) has/have quoted price(s) within L-1+ x% of margin of purchase preference as defined in the relevant policy, the buyer may with the approval of his competent authority, decide to award 100% order quantity on such service provider, provided such MSE bidder accepts the counter offer price of Non-MSE L1 bidder.

Bid offer Validity Extension

- Bid offer validity extension request can now be sent by the Buyer/Purchaser to the Seller/Bidder during the stage of Technical as well as Financial Evaluation.

Bid Validity Extension

- Earlier, the system allowed bid extension upto 69 Days only. This check has been removed, so buyers can extend bids without any restriction.

- Buyers may now seek online offer validity extension from the seller(s) prior to contract creation.

Split in Bid to RA

- Splitting option with Bid to RA is now available for Buyers during bid creation.

GST % in Bid

- GST Component is captured in percentage from the Seller during Bid participation. This GST component shall remain fixed and Seller shall not be allowed to make any changes during RA.

Custom bids

- Buyer can configure the Bid End date to a minimum of 10 days in the system.


  • Registration:

Integration with Udyam for MSME Enrolment:

- All the MSMEs which are registered and have their Udyam can now register as sellers on GeM directly through a Live API. This GeM seller registration through the API happens on a daily basis.

  • Catalogue Management:

Supply, Installation, Commissioning and Testing

- Installation, Commissioning and Testing Flag can be set by category owner in CMS.

- Installation, Commissioning and Testing can be passed as individual child variants against the item

- Buyer can 'uncheck' on Installation, Commissioning and Testing during bid creation. Its buyer's choice to pick any of the above.

- Sellers will be required to submit prices of Installation, Commissioning and Testing with products. These will be capped b/w 3% to 10% of product value (unit level). GST and ITC is to be considered here.

Unit of Measurement (UOM) update

- Unit of Measurement of a category cannot be changed once set. This is done to prevent mismatches and instances of categories having different catalogs with different UOMs.

Review Product Approval Reasons

- Admin team can provide standardized and clear comments on rejection cases of catalogs and brands.

- This will ensure uniform communication to all the sellers and lead to better understanding of the requirement, and thus improved TAT.

Price on Demand (POD) services

- Now Min and Max quantities are not required to be filled by Service Providers in the rate sheet row for services having POD.

Caution Money - Blocking the product upload

- Sellers who have not paid the Caution money to GeM would not be able to upload new Product/Brand. Once the Seller pays the Caution Money, the account will get automatically unlocked for new Product/Brand upload. This is applicable to all GeM sellers.

Changes for allowing to be approved without a brand

- Now sellers can request brand/OEM in 3 ways - Registered, Unregistered and Unbranded. Unregistered means where the seller has a Trademark but it’s not in registered status. Here the seller has to provide an undertaking in stamp paper. Unbranded means where sellers can request for a brand without any brand name. For Unregistered and Unbranded products, upload is a two-step approval process, seller uploads a product and then it goes to the approval team for approval consent.

Capability to enroll as OEM without a trademarked Brand

- This is same as above where seller can now request for brand without trademark in case unregistered and Unbranded.

Changes in OEM behavior in Q3 categories

- In Q3 categories now, if a seller has requested an OEM request from his OEM panel then only he will get the option of selling as OEM once the request is approved.

  • Changes in Marketplace:

Local Filter for difficult areas

- The filter enables the buyers to have the L1 product only from the sellers who have registered addresses in the particular locations of difficult areas selected by the buyer.

- Under the local filter, the buyer should have an option to select states and districts for the specified areas for orders between Rs 25000 to Rs 5 Lakh. The option is only available for the buyer of the below 'difficult' areas-

- Leh & Ladakh, Jammu, Kashmir

- North East

- Sikkim

- Andaman & Nicobar

- Lakshadweep

  • Contract Management:

Contract Amendment

- Buyer can now generate a contract amendment letter along with Cancellation request to reduce contract duration which can be viewed by the Seller / Service Provider along with reason for cancellation. Once the seller accepts that, the amendment letter will be applicable on top of the original contract.

Digital Signature Certificate

- Digital Signature provision has been implemented in GeM. The Buyer as well as Seller would have the option to verify the transactions using Digital signature. This has been enabled for Bid Publishing, Corrigendum publishing and Bid Participation. This has also been enabled for Order Placement, CRAC generation and Bill generation. This has been enabled for Order Placement, CRAC generation and Bill generation as well.

e-Sign Enhancements

- Along with OTP verification Buyer/Seller is provided an option to sign the documents uploaded by them through e-Signature portal of e-Mudhra. Digital signature verification option also provided to the Buyer/Seller.

  • Incident Management:

PAN Uniqueness Removal

- All sellers with the same PAN will be marked as Notified, Watch listed and Suspended for the Incident Management action.

Waiver Mechanism

- As per the Revised Incident Management Policy, the quantum of punishment of the Policy is reduced after considering the transaction history of Seller/ Service Provider on GeM portal and eligible dues to the Seller/Service provider from the Buyer who reported the incident.

Auto Action on Incidents

- Auto Action against the Buyer/Seller is taken, in case of no reply to Show Cause Notice after 15 days from the date of SCN sent.

  • Order Management:

e-Invoicing on GeM

- E-invoicing option shall be provided for Sellers to declare whether they are liable for e-invoicing or not in the Seller profile section.

- Seller profile section shall be incomplete unless a seller provides the declaration.

PVC Request initiated by seller at the time of invoicing

- Price Variation Clauses (PVC) are used in settling claims between Buyer and Seller for variation in the basic price of raw materials from the period of Bidding till the date of delivery.

- Category Owner will enable the PVC against the particular category for which PVC is applicable and buyer will get an option to select whether they want to add the PVC applicability clause against that BID or not.

- If Buyer selects “Yes”, then PVC is applicable for that bid order, buyer will be required to enter the text of the applicable PVC clause in a text box or will upload the pdf of PVC clause which will be published in the bid as well as contract.

- Sellers will get an option to update this “Unit Price” (PVC revised rates) along with the supporting document upload feature. Buyer’s consent is required at the time of bill processing for this revised price and accordingly buyer can make the payment.

  • Dashboard Changes:

Buyer and Seller Incentive scheme

- Buyer Seller Incentive Scheme related ranks for top 100 buyer and seller organizations are available.

- The respective ranks in respective category and parameter are available for top 100 buyer and seller organizations on GeM once they login into the portal. Buyers and Sellers can see the new “Know Your Rank” option in the respective dashboard to view their ranks.

Dashboard for Defense - Separate for Army / Navy / Air force

- MIS dashboard is for all the defense organizations, where nodal officers can login and access the summarized KPI’s of all the CDA’s under the respective organization and should be able to download a detailed report. This caters to multiple sections of reporting such as:

- Summary

- CDA wise user report

- Incident report

- Seller wise transactions

Business Cockpit

- Following new fields has been added in the Orders report:

- Model Number

- Bid/RA End date

- Order delivery due date

- Consignee State

- Buyer org type

- Brand detail is added in the Bid Not participated report.

- Title is changed for "Reseller Report" to "Active Stock status product count" On Summary page.

  • Payment Processing:

Repush Bill Handling

- Case of Railways - This is to enable automated repush of payment instructions to Railways in case of timeout.

- Case of CGDA - This is to enable automated repush of payment instructions to CGDA in case of timeout.

Budget unblocking for PFMS users

- PFMS buyers have been given an option to unblock the funds themselves for an order, as long as no payment for that order is in an initiated state. The buyers must upload an approval document to exercise this fund unblocking utility.

Allowing LD and Deductions for the RED buyers

- The validation for restricting the red buyers from imposing any deductions at the bill processing stage has now been lifted.

Rejected handling in case of Railways

- A new feature to resubmit the bill rejected due to following reasons has been introduced on GeM, buyers can rectify or ask seller to rectify and then resubmit the bill:

- Income Tax to be recovered as per extent rule

- IFSC code not available or Incorrect

- LeAccount Number not available or Incorrect

- Wrong LD details

- For the following rejection reasons, the bill offline form would be provided to the buyer to update the payment status.

- Coverage Purchase Order not linked

- GeM invoice and R Note quantity not matching

- Wrong Accounting unit

- Item description in Tax invoice not as per Contract/covering PO

- Mismatch of Tax Invoice Number with Documents

- Duplicate invoice number in same Financial Year

- Delivery Date needs extension

- Wrong GSTIN of Supplier

Services Implementation:

- Cyclic payments using PFMS top-up has been implemented to enable online payment via PFMS for service orders

- GPA cyclic payments for Service Orders using GPA top-up has been implemented to enable online payment via Non-Challan GPA for service orders

  • Post Contract Management:

Buyer related for product orders

- This enables the buyers to initiate multiple quantity amendment requests. This also enables the buyers to exercise the following kinds of delivery period amendments -

- Performance cum Extension Notice - Optional LD implications as per buyer's discretion.

- Delivery Period Fixation - This re-fixes the original delivery period for the open/un-invoiced quantity, without any LD liability.

  • Country of Origin:

- In a push to promote local products, GeM has made it mandatory for all the catalog owners to mandatorily update Country of Origin information on its marketplace. 

- This information was already mandatory for new product registration.  

- Buyers on the platform can now see the percentage of local content in various products. They can also switch on a new Make in India filter to see products that match their preferences on local content.

  • Bidding Process:

Bid Creation

- GeM buyers may now choose to procure using a consignee based staggered delivery plan in order to procure as per warehouse capacity and reduce wastage of perishable purchases.

- Delivery period during bid creation can be selected as 180 Days or more if permissible for the selected category.

- Buyer can opt for MSE purchase preference during Bid creation. MSE sellers who are within L1+15% of L1 price can match price with L1 online and can be considered for Bid award.

- Buyer details such as Buyer name and office name is masked for all Defense related Bids.

- For Price on Demand services, Buyers have to mandatorily enter bid estimated value to define the required EMD and Project experience in Bid.

- Buyers can submit an estimated bid value during Bid creation to select their desired EMD and Experience.

- During Bid creation, Buyers can select LCS (Least cost based )selection method for L1 evaluation.

- In selected categories, Buyers can upload the required drawings or SOW and tag it to a single to multiple categories from Bid.

- Exemption for Turnover and project experience can be given to startups and MSE exclusively.

- Bid participation

- Sellers have an option to upload a supporting document for each QCBS and LCS parameter during bid participation.

- All sellers who have an offering in the published Bid category will be notified for Bid participation.

- Previous price submitted during RA participation will be displayed to the sellers for each item.

- Sellers can view time remaining for the RA to end in the reverse clock on the RA participation screen. The reverse clock can be referred for tracking L1 price and RA end time.

- Advance search is available publicly to search bids using filters such as Bid end date, item category, State, Organization, Department, Ministry and Consignee.

- Bid Evaluation

- During technical evaluation, Buyer can download a comparison of technical offerings submitted by sellers in a Bid.

- Buyers can seek online clarification from sellers against a document or generally. Bidders, whose Bids have been disqualified in technical evaluation may review the reason(s) for rejection by the Buyer and raise a one-time representation to challenge the rejection for disqualification within 48 hours after technical evaluation is completed. Buyer shall respond to all such representations before proceeding with the Financial Bid Opening.

  • Contract Management:

- Buyers can now choose contract period in years. Years dropdown has been enabled for the same.

- Buyers can now initiate increase of quantity or contract duration for their service contracts based on the SLA for respective service.

- Any user visiting GeM portal has an option to view basic details of the Contract that is created in the past 90 days. Aim of the feature is to propagate transparency and to make the Contract information readily available in the public domain

  • Order Management:

- If consignee rejects any quantity during PRC/CRAC and seller is delivering the rejected item again, then the consignee doesn’t have option to edit the PRC/CRAC or generate a separate PRC/CRAC for the rejected items, to overcome this problem,GeM has introduced a supplementary invoice creation functionality by seller so that the seller would able to generate a 'Supplementary Invoice' against the rejected quantity.

- Buyer/Consignee can use the QR code to track the dispatched goods. The Consignee would be able to scan the QR code using Mobile QR Code Scanner application (refer Appendix for QR scanner apps) to see the details of the consignment. To track the shipment at buyers/consignee end, sellers may generate the dispatch slip with basic Consignee, Order and Shipment information and Sellers may attach dispatch slips along with shipments.

- Buyer/HOD is now able to view the MSE Payment due,CRAC due and Payment Paid chart separately in their dashboard. Also payment authority will able to view the payment dashboard after login under acceptance and payments due section.

  • Payment Processing:

- TReDS has been integrated on GeM portal to allow buyers and sellers to get the bill discounting for GeM bills. The feature has been enabled for CPSU buyers and MSME sellers.

- New revenue model has been implemented. More details available here.

- Integration with Railways has been enhanced to share all transaction data with railways IMMS system.

- Integration with CPPP to archive unified procurement system. The bids published on CPPP will have to get GEMARPTS ID generated and verified through GeM portal. The tender details published on CPPP will also be mirrored on GeM.

- GeM Availability and past transaction report has been implemented for buyers. Buyers can get this report generated for all product and category searches on GeM portal.

- GPA has been upgraded to handle multiple versions enabling various functionalities.

- Feature to ensure order fulfilment and payment processing at GeM in a time bound manner. This feature issues the system generated auto PRC/CRAC in case the consignee does not process the shipments within the given timeframe

- Feature to allow the PFMS buyers to place their orders without blocking funds, towards the end of Financial Year. This also allows the user to trigger fund unblocking themselves, towards the end of Financial Year, for the utilization of funds elsewhere.

- Enabled order and payment processing for Railways service orders online, similar to product orders

  • Registration Process:

- Buyers

- A new integration is done with NIC. Now the buyers will be authenticated by NIC LDAP at the time of registration and Login.

- Buyers can now see an option under their My Account section to send an Invite to Sellers/Service Providers who are not yet registered on GeM.

- Sellers

- New interface for seller registration is divided into 4 sections - Organization details, Personal Verification, Email Verification and User Credentials. It's very user friendly and provides the better experience to the users while doing the seller registration and profile updating.

- A new workflow was implemented for SHGs where the SHG missions were incorporated as brands in the system. All the SHGs from a mission are able to upload under their mission. The SHG mission logo is displayed on the product details page. A separate landing page on the market was created for showcasing SHG products.

  • Catalogue Management:

- A new functionality was provided for sellers to quickly upload catalogs that had minor differences in their specification. An existing catalog can be cloned, the value in the relevant spec can be changed, and the catalog can be published.

- Multiple messaging and UI changes have been done in the catalog upload and brand request/ OEM request creation process. This is to enable the sellers to understand the process better and also to ensure clear messaging.

- A new functionality has been deployed where sellers need to update/reconfirm their stock details (quantity, offer price, discounts, MOQ, delivery locations etc) once in 60 days, so that the market always has updated, current listings. Listings not updated in 60 days are marked expired and not listed on the market.

- If a category is created as a replacement of an existing category, the category manager has the option to migrate all existing brands and approved OEMs from the old category to the new category. This helps the sellers to start uploading catalogs in the new category immediately, without the need to apply for brands again.

- The OEM request creation and approval workflow has been clubbed together so that OEMs can create OEM authorization request together with brand request. This helps in saving time for the OEMs.

- A lead time filter is provided on the market where a buyer can provide a value of lead time they require -- seller products that are equal to or more than the buyer specified lead time are filtered out on the market. This is applicable for DP buying.

- GeMARPTS is a pre-requisite for arriving at a decision by the competent authority for procurement of required goods and services by floating a bid outside GeM. The Buyer can check the available categories at GeM& past transaction summary and take their procurement decisions accordingly

- This feature enables the CGDA HODs to onboard buyers specifically for the purpose of placing Unit Local Purchase Orders. This feature enables ULPO buyer to place orders through code heads that have been specifically assigned to them.

- Service Providers now have an option to deactivate their offering for a service. Once deactivated they can again activate it after a cooling period of 15 days.

  • Incident Management:

- Primary Buyer Dashboard: A dashboard for Incident Management is provided to Primary buyer in which he would be able to view all Incidents related to his secondary users. The Primary buyer can further comment on the incident and ask for clarification and resolution from the buyer. Once the issue is resolved buyer/primary user can ask for closure of the incident through an option provided on the panel.

  • Air Ticket Booking:

- Air Ticket Booking using Net Banking/ Debit Card/ Credit Card payment modes is available to buyers for official visits using third party aggregators integrated on GeM. Currently, Air Ticket Booking is Live with MMT and Yatra. Post Login “Air Ticket Booking” option is available from Buyer’s Dashboard and also under Product / Service tab.

  • Business Cockpit Subscription renewal for OEMs:

- Renew Subscription option is available to those OEMs whose subscription is getting expired within a month. The Pay now link is visible to the OEMs till they make the payment. Once the OEMs make the payment, the subscription will get renewed from the expiry date for next one year. If OEM didn’t renew their services, Business cockpit page will stop displaying statistics/data starting from the date of expiry of subscription.

  • Rating a seller / service provider on GeM:

- Buyer/Consignee is now able to rate a seller/ service provider for a product/ service on a regular basis during CRAC/ invoicing. The ratings provided will impact the overall seller rating generated for the seller at the portal. This will in turn help other buyers on the portal in making procurement decisions in a product/ service category.Click here to rate a Seller / Service provider.

  • GeM Portal:

- GeM along with TRIFED (Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India) launched curated baskets of natural, handloom and handcrafted products from Tribes India via a special webpage.

- As part of its "Inclusiveness" value, GeM launched a special portal for onboarding Weavers and Artisans across India in collaboration with the Department of Handloom and Handicrafts, Ministry of Textiles.

- Furthering the Transparency agenda of GeM - now all the users can search for contracts publicly on GeM from " View Contracts" link on GeM home page. Click here

- Contracts could be searched by purchase type or by nature of buyer entities 

  • Chatbot - GeMmy:

- GeM's chatbot GeMmy has been upgraded to provide transactional data for a logged in user. A user can fetch Order, Product, Brand/OEM, Incident, and Request information from the chatbot. 

  • Bidding Process:

-          GeM introduces CMC (Comprehensive Maintenance Cost) based evaluation for Medical equipment upto 5 years.

-          Bid Enhancements for supporting Freight intensive items such as Steel, Cement etc. made available on GeM

-          At the time of bid creation buyer can now choose delivery period upto 180 days.

-          EMD Exemption Workflow

-          Buyers can now validate sellers credentials if they are eligible for exemption of EMD in technical evaluation.

-          ATC Library - revamped

-          ATC library revamped with clause(s) most frequently used by buyers. Clause(s) are grouped under relevant tabs for easy consumption by buyers.

-          ATC for Buyback

-          Additional Terms and Conditions for buyback added in ATC library for buyers to easily pick and include in bid.

-          Bid / RA – OEM / Reseller Participation

-          To improve fair participation in Bid / RA, GeM now ensures that at least 3 sellers have participated and offered products from at least 2 different OEMs.  In case buyer wants to proceed with less than 3 Resellers or two OEMs/Brand, they have to upload approval from Competent Authority.

-          Bid / RA – ATC request Approval

-          Buyers shall take necessary approval from competent authority before placing request on GeM for additional Terms and Conditions w.r.t Bid.

-          Allow Buyer to pick any seller's price offering as reference for Bid:

-          Buyer are now provided with an option to choose any price offering from the catalog as reference price for the Bid, in order to reduce chances of bid failure due to lack of participation by opting for a price that is not unreasonable.

-          Enable Bid End date selection by the Buyer

-          Now buyers can select bid duration between 10 to 21 days.


 

  • Marketplace Enhancements:

-          Detailed list of product categories is made available in downloadable pdf format for easy category search by GeM users.

-          Supporting documents for brand application can be uploaded from seller panel itself.

-          Display Category Documents on Product Direct Purchase, Bid & Contract

-          Category specification documents are now shown to buyer on product display page, bid document and contract document. This is aimed at helping buyers and sellers to check the compliance of product w.r.t category specification.

-          CMS - Catalog Search by Product ID/Catalog ID On Seller Panel

-          Seller can now directly search for a particular product that they have uploaded using the product id or catalog id.

-          Search for local Sellers / service providers on GeM

-          GeM marketplace now allows using of local search for:

-          5 PIN codes / states / districts in one go

-          Local Seller / Service Providers for Product / Services

-          Discontinued Product

-          If a product is discontinued by OEM of the brand, all paired catalogs are de-listed from the market.
This is applicable for categories in Q2 where OEMs create catalogs and resellers pair with these catalogs.

  • Services Enhancements:

-          Services can be procured for a single day, i.e. start and end date of service could be same.

-          Multiple consignee’s can be selected in marketplace for procuring a service through direct purchase.

-          Buyers can select option for Pre Bid meeting for certain services during bidding Process.

-          Buyer has an option to request for cancellation of service before service start date in case the service is not required after generation of contract.

-          Floor Price Capability for Service base price and add-ons with calculations preview

 

  • Fulfillment Enhancements

-          Additional Deduction field on Bills

-          Buyers can now impose additional deductions such as TDS, TDS under GST and any other applicable taxes at the time of bill creation.

-          Provision of filling actual quantity received in decimal enabled on GeM

-          To support categories that require quantity to be measured in 3 decimals e.g. Steel measured in Metric Tonnes, buyer at the time of CRAC creation can specify the exact quantity received e.g 66.045.

-          ePBG rules to restrict OEM / Sellers accept further orders

-          OEMs / Sellers for whom BG backed transaction charges apply except automobiles, would not be able to accept any further orders if:

a) BG Limit is crossed

b) BG is expired

c) Challans payment is due for more than 21 days

-          Buyers now have the option to cancel product contracts after invoice generation by seller:

-          Now buyers get the option to cancel the product contract(s) even if the invoice has been generated by seller provided 15 days have expired from delivery period.

-          GSTIN made mandatory for any seller having GSTIN number

-          Now sellers having GSTIN number will have to mandatorily provide it. Also the ones having GSTIN need to provide breakup of CGST/SGST/UGST and IGST.

  • Payment Enhancements:

-          GPA – Non Challan Model

-          GeM Pool Account – Non Challan Model has been launched for all PSU buyers and Non-PFMS entities

-          The Buyer would keep a floating amount in the GeMpool account hosted by banks. The floating amount would be used for all Purchases made on GeM.

-          No challan would be generated as account is pre funded by NPAE (Non PFMS Agencies and Entities)

-          IOCL is the first PSU with which GeM has activated GPA Non Challan model

-          12 Public / Private banks have adopted both GPA Challan and Non-Challan model.

  • Registration Process Enhancements:

-          ITR Verification exemption during Registration of proprietors from North-East states, J&K and Laddakh UT. 

-          Primary buyer can initiate the request for gembuyer.in email ID creation for secondary buyers

-          To make it easy and fast for primary buyer(s) to request gembuyer.in email ID creation for secondary buyers not having gov.in / nic.in email domains.

-          Alternate Contact Number can be provided by Seller

-          Seller can now provide alternate contact number, which could be a landline number, in order for buyer to contact them in case of any query.

  • Training / Learning Management System:

-          For ease of Buyers and Sellers to get trained with operational aspects of GeM, nomination facility for GeM operated trainings has been extended.

-          Attendance and participation feedback functionality for buyers and sellers.

-          Training videos and documents can be accessed by GeM users without logging in.

  • Other Enhancements:

-          Start-Up Runway Enhancements

-          GeM has launched a revamped Startup Runway for Start-ups to offer products/services that are unique in its design, process, concept and functionality on GeM. The products can directly be introduced in respective categories under startup runway.

-          Auto SCN for Post Contract Incidents

-          Auto show cause notice is issued to seller / service provider by system in case of non-delivery / refusal to supply of products / services.

-          OEM Business Cockpit

-          Business Cockpit has been enhanced with additional parameters in existing report as well as new chart widgets based on OEM and MAIT recommendations

-          GeM launches Electric Vehicle project bids

-          Electric Vehicle project bids now can be floated on GeM. Buyers can enter estimated project value during the bid creation process and select contract duration of up to 16 years.