Govt to blacklist sellers on Amazon of public procurement for poor-quality goods, exorbitant prices

Ease of Doing Business for MSMEs: Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal on Sunday cautioned sellers on the public procurement portal – government e-marketplace (GeM) against selling goods of inferior quality or charging high prices. Addressing the e-National Public Procurement Conclave organised by GeM and lauding it in becoming a “game-changer” in the government procurement process, the minister “cautioned the unscrupulous sellers from pushing the poor quality goods or charging exorbitant prices,” said a statement by the Commerce Ministry. The minister added that such sellers will be blacklisted not only from the GeM portal but from the “entire government ecosystem.”

GeM had last year in September said that it will devise a mechanism for vendor assessment of all sellers on the marketplace instead of only for original equipment manufacturers to ensure the sale of quality goods, PTI had reported citing an official. In June this year, the marketplace has made it mandatory for all sellers to mention the country of origin while registering new products on the portal even as for existing products, sellers were asked to update the same. The move came amid growing resentment for Chinese goods following the Galwan valley clash between Indian and Chinese armed forces.