New Delhi, Sep 21 : Aligned with the Centre's commitment to foster ease of doing business and build a more inclusive economy, the Government-e-Marketplace (GeM) has announced a significant reduction in the transaction charges levied on sellers and service providers transacting on its platform.

GeM has slashed its transaction fee by almost 33 per cent to 96 per cent which is expected to greatly benefit GeM sellers and service providers to become more competitive.

As per the new GeM policy, all orders valued up to Rs 10 lakh will now attract zero transaction charges, as opposed to the earlier order value ceiling of Rs 5 lakh.

Orders above Rs 10 lakh up to Rs 10 crore will be levied transaction charges worth 0.30 per cent of total order value, as compared to earlier transaction charges of 0.45 per cent, according to a Ministry of Commerce and Industry statement.

Orders above Rs 10 crore will now pay a flat fee of Rs 3 lakh, a massive reduction from the transaction charges previously capped at Rs 72.5 lakh, as per the ministry.

About 97 per cent of the transactions on GeM will attract zero transaction charges, while the remaining will incur a nominal fee at 0.30 per cent of order value above Rs 10 lakh subject to a maximum of Rs 3 lakh only, irrespective of the size of the order.

'This step is a watershed moment in terms of ease of doing business on GeM and is also in line with government's commitment of reduction in cost of transactions,' the ministry noted.

FY 2024-25 is also a great moment for services sector wherein services sector leapfrogged at a very rapid pace surpassing product GMV by a good margin.

Service GMV of Rs 1.39 lakh crore (as on August 31) is accounting for approximately 65 per cent of the total merchandise value of Rs 2.15 lakh crore for the same period. Several high value service bids have been awarded on the platform.

This surge in services procurement is supported by a large inventory of more than 325 service categories on the platform.

GeM is a unified digital platform that facilitates end-to-end procurement of goods and services by various central ministries, state departments, public sector enterprises, autonomous bodies, panchayats, multi and single state cooperatives, etc.

/IANS