GENERAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR ENROLMENT OF BUYER ON GEM

(GOVERNMENT E-MARKETPLACE)
1. In the GeM Pilot (Phase), Central Government Ministries/Departments/State Governments
including its attached/subordinate offices, Central Public Sector Units (CPSUs)/PSUs and
Autonomous Bodies acting through its authorized officer(s) for and on behalf of President of
India/Governor of state/CPSU/Autonomous Bodies, as the case may be, are authorized to register
and purchase Goods/Services offered by Vendor(s)/Seller(s) on GeM. Gradually, the services
shall be extended to other government users as well as territories.
2. On GeM, for purchases upto Rs.50,000/-, Purchaser (s)/Buyer(s) are authorised to source
required items through any of the available suppliers on the GeM meeting requisite quality,
specifications and delivery period. However, for purchases above Rs.50,000/-, Purchaser
(s)/Buyer(s) are authorised to source required items through the supplier having lowest price
amongst the available suppliers on the GeM meeting requisite quality, specifications and delivery
period. Aforesaid, powers have been vested in the Government user departments so that they can
meet their requirement of common user goods and services with the flexibility and speed of e-
market place and relieve them from repeated mundane activity of bid management. It is important
that these powers are used judiciously so that there is effective and efficient utilisation of
precious government resources. Accordingly, it has been decided that every
Ministry/Department/CPSU/ Autonomous Bodies shall nominate a primary user at the level of
Deputy secretary/equivalent (or officer as referred in Office memorandum,( Office memorandum
on clarification of HoD/Primary User on GeM. ) for using GeM Portal. This seniority has been
kept keeping in view the flexibility of purchase provided to the government user using GeM as
per GFR amendment vide Rule 141A.
3. Accordingly, the primary registration to the government users is granted at the level of Deputy
secretary/equivalent officer in respective government departments. The GeM have the facility for
aforesaid primary users to create subordinate secondary users in the system with specific role and
responsibilities of Buyers, DDOs, Consignees and PAOs. The secondary users in the system shall
be person of responsibilities as approved by primary user, but not below the rank of a section
officer/equivalent. These authorised secondary users shall have the rights and privileges as
assigned to them by the primary user. The secondary users can not create further users in the
system.
4. The primary user can also create a supervisor in the system. The Supervisor in the system shall be
Director/Deputy Secretary equivalent officer. All the activities carried out by the secondary users
in the GeM are notified to the concerned Supervisor Officer apart from being notified to other
concerned secondary users. For example, if Secondary User A places purchase order in GeM
with Secondary User B as consignee and Secondary User C as PAO, the system notification
shall be sent to Secondary Users B and C as soon as Secondary User A places online order
in GeM apart from sending notification to concerned supervising/supervisory officer.
5. The secondary users can interact with GeM helpdesk to resolve day to day operational issues.
However, issues requiring escalation shall be referred to at the level of Supervisor Officer.
6. The detailed guidelines for registration are detailed below in the succeeding sub paragraphs
o To create a Purchaser (s)/Buyer(s) account in GeM, HOD/Primary User ( Office memorandum
on clarification of HoD/Primary User on GeM. ) in respective government departments should
 visit GeM at url:https://gem.gov.in/. Organisational Information and Primary User
Details should be entered in GeM in the link User registration Document at
Url: https://gem.gov.in/register/org/signup.
o For Organisational Information, the details of the user departments appear in drop down menu.
User departments are just required to select the appropriate choices from drop down menu. In
case, any of the Purchaser (s)/Buyer(s) department is not appearing in drop down menu, the
Purchaser (s)/Buyer(s) should enter the details of their respective organisations under the head
others. The same shall be appropriately incorporated in the database for future references.
o For Primary User Details, HOD/DS/Equivalent officer in respective government user
departments shall enter their Employee ID and Aadhaar Number in the system. Based upon
aforesaid information, their complete details including official email id (as per NIC records) and
mobile number (as per Aadhaar database) shall be populated in the remaining cells of Primary
User Details. Primary users are required to verify and ensure that the details as populated from
Employee ID and Aadhaar Database are correct and currently in usage. In case, email Id as
generated from Employee ID database is not valid/updated, user must take up with NIC to get
their valid email Id. Only the users with valid email Id from NIC, are authorised to enrol in
the system as government buyer. However, in case the mobile number, as generated from
Aadhaar, is currently not in usage, GeM gives user the flexibility to update his mobile number
in the system.
o The users are required to validate their email Id and mobile number through confirmation link on
email and OTP on mobile.
o The Primary Users are also required to separately enter their official telephone number
(landline/mobile) and NIC email Id of their Reporting officer/ Administrative Officer in their
organisation.
o After details of primary user are validated by system, a confirmation mail shall be sent to the
Reporting Officer/Administrative officer in the buyers organisation by the system for
validating/authenticating the primary user. As soon as, Reporting Officer/Administrative officers
validation/authentication is received by the system, the primary user account is activated in GeM.
o Primary users, in turn, can create secondary subordinate users in the system with specific roles of
Buyers, DDOs, Consignees and PAOs. The primary users can also create a supervisor in the
system to whom all the activities carried out by secondary subordinate users are notified. Primary
user is the administrator of secondary subordinate users and supervisor under his control. He can
modify the roles assigned to them.
o For the change/modification of primary user, if any, the on-going primary user, on
transfer/superannuation, as the case may be, will hand over to his successor, who will enrol in the
system, following the aforesaid prescribed drill and authenticate his account details.
o In case of transfer of secondary user, no charge hand over of Ids are required as primary user can
terminate secondary user anytime and create new secondary user with the new roles as per the
requirement of the organization.
o All the HoD of Department (Primary user) may create an email on gov.in/nic.in on post based
account (Not in personal account). This post based email address should be used as Primary user
ID.
7. Delivery Period: In order to give flexibility to the buyers in sourcing their requirements through
GeM, provision has been made in e-bid and RA modules for indicating delivery period in terms
 of number of days from date of placement of contract. While stipulating delivery period in their
bid documents, Buyers are advised to be careful since un-realistic delivery period stipulations
may result in elimination of some genuine sellers, lack of competition may ultimately have
impact on cost of procurement. While fixing delivery period in e-bid/ RA bid, buyers should not
only take into consideration the quantity required and the essentiality of requirement of that
quantity within stipulated time period but also the possible impact of shorter delivery period on
competition in e-bidding / RA.
8. Buying from Single OEM: According to the provisions of GFR rule 141 A,GeM may be utilized
by Governmentbuyersfor direct on-line purchases above Rs. 50,000/ also but such purchase has
to be through the supplier having lowest price amongst the available suppliers on the GeM. In
order to ensure thatbuyersselect only L-1 available offer, the GeM portal requires thatbuyerfirst
compares product.While comparing, care should be taken that comparison has to be done
between products of at least two different Manufacturers / OEMs. For L-1 buying, comparison
has to be made between products of at least two different OEMs.If a buyer wants to buy any
specific OEMs product, then she/he can choose PAC buying in administrative filters after
obtaining necessary approvals of competent authority and can buy without comparing products
from two different OEMSs.
9. The Market Prices of various Goods and Services as offered by sellers on GeM are offer prices.
For getting best competitive rates, GeM recommends use of the bidding tool available on the
portal.
***
 1. Authorized officers of the rank of Deputy Secretary/Equivalent or Head of the Office at Sub
Center / Unit / Branch of Government Organization / PSU / Autonomous Bodies / Local Bodies /
Constitution Bodies / Statuary Bodies can register as Primary User on GeM.

2. HoD/primary user is required to fill online registration form after clicking the following link to
get registered on GeM portal. Https://gem.gov.in/register/org/signup

3. For Using GeM portal first a Primary User needs to register on GeM portal. Requirement of
Registration on GeM are as follows:
Aadhaar linked with mobile no. (To receive OTP for e-sign):
Official Email ID (Preferably .nic.in OR .gov.in Email):

4. No. Both are the same. They are just separate nomenclatures. The HoD/Primary User is a
representative of Buyer Organization. HoD is not to be confused with Head of Department in
Government parlance. HoD / Primary user registration is meant for registration of that
organization on GeM portal and for creation of roles and monitoring of activities of all secondary
users of that organization.

5. Yes, Aadhaar No. is a must for using GeM for primary and secondary users. All online
documents in GeM are e-signed through an OTP received on mobile no. linked with Aadhaar.

6. Aadhar details collected by GeM are solely for user verification and to apply e-signing on the
documents. The e-sign is at par with digital signatures as per Information Technology Act
Amendment 2008 and it works based on details available in Aadhar database of UIDAI and there
is no interference / intrusion in their personal details

7. No, only official email id provided by government organizations can be used for registering on
GeM.

8. No, Biometric attendance ID is not mandatory for using GeM. Applicant can fill their office
ID/employee ID in the field of Biometric attendance ID in case they are not having BAS.

9. Any officer from administration of the organization who is authorized to verify the details of
primary user can be the Verifying/authenticating officer. He/She must be at the level of Under
Secretary/Equivalent or above.

10. Role of HoD/Primary User in GeM is to create Secondary users for his organization i.e.
Buyer, consignee, DDO/ Paying Authority. He/She can add secondary users after clicking on
Manage Users tab after logging in the GeM portal. HoD/Primary User cannot perform Buying
functions on the portal.
11. Once the Primary user has added the secondary user, User ID and password of Secondary
user will be sent to the secondary users Email ID and mobile number respectively.

12. Any officer of the organization can be made Secondary user. Secondary user should not be
below the rank of Section Officer.

13. Four types of roles are performed by Secondary users in GeM portal.
1. Buyer: Buyer will select the item for purchase and will place the order on behalf of his
organization.
2. Consignee: Consignee will receive the item and will generate the PRC and CRAC certificate.
3. DDO (only for PFMS payment mode users): DDO will forward the bill to PAO of PFMS.
4. (NOTE:-In case of PFMS payment method, there is no role of Paying Authority / PAO in
GeM. PAO from PFMS just needs to login to PFMS portal to make the payment after the bill has
been forwarded by DDO to PFMS portal. PAO from PFMS can see and verify on-line the various
documents related to the procurement before making payment.)
5. Paying Authority / PAO (for other than PFMS payment mode users): Paying Authority /
PAO will make the payment to supplier/vendor.

14. DDO role is to forward the bills to PFMS, which is finally paid by Paying Authority of PFMS
after logging in PFMS portal. DDO role in GeM is restricted to the central government users
using payment through PFMS.
For users Other than PFMS, Paying Authority / PAO role is to make payment for the bill
processed by Buyer through online banking OR other methods
15. No, Only Buyer and Consignee role can be given to same person. PAO/DDO role can be
given to a person other than Buyer / Consignee only

16. No, Primary user and Secondary user roles cannot be performed by same officers. Secondary
user always needs to be different from Primary user.