DIPP brings 11 government services on eBiz portal

The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) of the union ministry of commerce and industry today announced the launch of 11 central government services on eBiz portal, as part of the government's initiatives to make doing business in the country easy.

These services are required for starting a business in the country - four services from ministry of corporate affairs, two services of the Central Board of Direct Taxes, two services of the Reserve Bank of India and one service each from the Directorate General of Foreign Trade, Employees' Provident Fund Organisation and Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation. 

Currently, these services can be availed either from the portal of the respective ministry/department or by physical submission of forms. With the integration of these services on eBiz portal, a person can avail of all these services 24x7 online end-to-end, ie, online submission of forms, attachments, payments, tracking of status and also obtain the licence/permit from eBiz portal, an official release said today.

Through the eBiz portal a business user can fill the eForms online/offline, upload the attachments, make payment online and submit the forms for processing of the department. The user will be provided with copy of challan (which he can save or print), acknowledgement of submission and tracking of status of the form besides receiving SMS alerts on important notifications. The certificate/clearance can be downloaded from eBiz. The eBiz platform thus enables a transformational shift in the governments' service delivery approach from being department-centric to customer-centric as a single window portal.

eBiz, India's Government-to-Business (G2B) portal, was conceptualised with support from the National Institute of Smart Government (NISG) as the consulting partner and developed by Infosys Ltd, Bangalore in a public private partnership (PPP) model for a period of 10 years. The first three years of the term would be the pilot phase, while the remaining seven years will be the expansion phase.

During the pilot phase, 50 (26 central + 24 state) services are being implemented across ten pilot states, viz, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Maharashtra, Tamilnadu, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. It is envisaged that during the next few years, more than 200 services related to investors and businesses will be rolled-out across the country.

One of the salient features of eBiz is its payment gateway solution. With integration of PSU banks, government fees are transferred on 'T+1' basis. For eBiz transactions, an electronic PAO system (ePAO) has been set up in DIPP, which will make booking and reconciliation of all central government fees received through eBiz portal.

The Comptroller General of Accounts has given approval to establish the electronic system of collection, apportionment and remittance of fees collected under the eBiz portal. It is for the first time in the country that collection of fees through credit and debit cards for different services have been permitted making it very convenient for business to deposit fees.

Speaking on the occasion, minister of finance, corporate affairs and information and broadcasting Arun Jaitley, said, ''We are firmly committed to wide-ranging initiatives aimed at fostering the business environment in the country in a holistic manner. Our approach includes leveraging technology to bring transparency, improve efficiency and promote convenience. eBiz is an important step in this direction. With the integration of 11 services, an important milestone in the electronic service delivery mechanism between the citizens' and government departments has been achieved''.

Minister of state (independent charge), commerce and industry Nirmala Sitharaman said, ''Now, irrespective of the level of computerisation at the department's end, whether online or not, eBiz platform will provide end-to-end online submission and processing of forms, including online payment. This marks the highest level of maturity in web-based eGovernance applications as it strives to achieve horizontal integration across various verticals of Central government, State governments and para-statal agencies. The integrated payment gateway, which is also the first of its kind in the country, provides for debiting from and crediting to multiple sources in a completely automated manner. Such a gateway can serve as the universal gateway for all eGovernance applications. All that would be required is integration of the department or the particular service with the eBiz portal.''

The list of 11 services include services provided by the

• Ministry of corporate affairs: Name Availability, Director Identification Number, Certificate of Incorporation, Commencement of Business;
• Central Board of Direct Taxes: Issue of Permanent Account Number (PAN), Issue of Tax Deduction Account Number (TAN);
• Reserve Bank of India: Advanced Foreign Remittance (AFR), Foreign Collaboration-General Permission Route (FC-GPR);
• Employees' Provident Fund Organisation: Employer Registration;
• Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation: Issue of Explosive License; and
• Directorate General of Foreign Trade: Importer Exporter Code Licence.