New Delhi, November 1: The Government e-Marketplace (GeM) has signed MoU with Indian Bank and Canara Bank. The MoU will facilitate a cashless, paperless and transparent payment system on the portal and would create an efficient procurement system for government entities.
According to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, through this partnership, both the banks will be able to offer an array of services including transfer of funds through GeM Pool Accounts (GPA), advising of Performance Bank Guarantees (e-PBG), Earnest Money Deposit (EMD) and Payment Gateway to the registered users on the portal.
GeM is also working with banks, Trade Receivables Discounting Systems (TReD) and SIDBI to provide bill discounting and financing of working capital where the cost of capital is linked to the performance and rating of a seller on GeM. This will help sellers in general and MSMEs in particular to access easy credit and do better business with the government. In addition, GeM is contemplating creation of EMD pool account for making it easy for sellers to comply with the EMD requirements while responding to bids.
GeM is an initiative of the Government of India, which offers a one stop platform for facilitating online procurement of common use goods and services required by various government departments, organisations and PSUs. GeM provides tools for direct purchase, bidding and reverse auction for ensuring transparent and efficient procurement.
Online integration for payments and various banking services is one of the priorities for GeM. GeM has already signed MoU with 18 scheduled commercial public sector and private banks in this regard.