GeM: Hundreds of Chinese companies removed from GeM portal in three years, no products from neighboring countries on the platform

Hundreds of companies linked to China have been removed from the government procurement platform GeM portal in the last three years. These companies are owned by Chinese citizens or a Chinese entity has a significant stake in them. GeM Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Prashant Kumar Singh said on Wednesday that there are no products on the government procurement platform of companies whose land borders share with India.

Singh said, we have removed many fake sellers from Gem. This step has been taken after the order of the Expenditure Department, especially in relation to countries sharing land borders. Under this, products from certain countries are not to be used on the GeM platform. He said that while taking action against companies, we look at the sharing pattern and whether there are any countries sharing a land border. He is then removed from the stage or disqualified. Gem CEO said that this is a big number, which we have removed from the platform. The categories that have been seriously affected by this move include laptops, desktops, medical devices, etc. These were those companies which were related to China in any way.

Gem handed over to TCS from October 3

To give a new look to GeM, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has been appointed as a strategic partner from October 3. The contract period of the existing company Intellect Design Arena is about to end.

Strict adherence to rules in excluding companies

The GeM CEO said that before removing Chinese companies from the government procurement platform, any kind of indirect stake of the sellers, apart from direct shareholding, was also examined. In doing so the rules were completely followed. He said, these orders of excluding Chinese companies from the GeM portal do not in any way violate any of India’s commitments in the World Trade Organization (WTO) as investment and government procurement are still subject to any kind of agreement with the global trade body. Are not part of.

Expenditure Department changed the rules after the dispute with China

Following the border standoff with China, the Expenditure Department had made changes in the general financial rules in July 2020. In this, bidders from countries sharing borders with India were prohibited from participating in any government procurement. The ban was until they registered with the competent authority.