India’s largest lender SBI was quite slow in procuring goods and services from government-owned GeM portal in 2022-23 and lagged behind smaller counterparts, including Canara Bank and Punjab National Bank, according to the government data. Canara Bank emerged as the largest buyer among the state-owned lenders in 2022-23, making total purchases of Rs 592.82 crore from the portal, the data showed.

Punjab National Bank (Rs 164.57 crore) was the second largest, followed by Indian Overseas Bank (Rs 159.82 crore), State Bank of India (Rs 158.22 crore), Indian Bank (Rs 111.59 crore), Bank of India (Rs 63.81 crore), Bank of Baroda (Rs 48.63 crore), Union Bank of India (Rs 37.03 crore), Bank of Maharashtra (Rs 10.26 crore), Punjab and Sind Bank (Rs 9.98 crore), UCO Bank (Rs 5.30 crore) and Central Bank of India (Rs 4.54 crore) in 2022-23.

The SBI did not respond to an email query on the subject.

The GeM portal was launched on August 9, 2016, for online purchasing of goods and services by all the central government ministries and departments.

GeM has over 63,000 government buyer organisations and over 62 lakh sellers and service providers offering a wide range of products and services.

Currently, government departments, ministries, public sector units, state governments, and central armed police forces are allowed to carry out transactions through this portal. The portal provides a wide range of products from office stationery to vehicles.

Automobiles, computers and office furniture are some of the major product categories. Services, including transportation, logistics, waste management, web casting and analytical, are also listed on the portal.

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