Transactions worth Rs 17,500 crore have taken place through the public procurement online platform -- Government e-marketplace (GeM) -- in the last two years, resulting in an average saving of 25-28 percent, Finance Minister Piyush Goyal said on Friday.

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The commerce and industry ministry launched the GeM in August 2016 with the objective of creating an open and transparent procurement platform for government departments and agencies.

"GeM has transformed public procurement by making it fully transparent, inclusive and efficient. MSMEs have an opportunity to sell their products through GeM. Transactions worth over Rs 17,500 crore have already taken place, resulting in an average saving of 25-28 per cent from purchase from GeM," Goyal said while presenting the Interim Budget 2019-20 in the Lok Sabha.

He also said the platform is now extended to central public sector enterprises.

The central and state governments procure goods and services worth over Rs 5 lakh crore annually via the platform.

As many as 1,90,226 sellers and service providers are offering 7,53,162 products on this platform.

Goyal further said the government is focusing on supporting domestic trade and services.

The government has put both external and internal trade under the commerce and industry ministry. Earlier, the internal trade was under the consumer affairs ministry.

The government has renamed the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) as the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT).