Times of India
( 29 Sept 2016 ) carries a news report titled :
" CCEA
clears Rs 2,256 cr project for CBEC's GST integration "
Details are :
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CCEA
today cleared a Rs 2,256 crore IT project Saksham of the Central Board of
Excise and Customs, which will help integrate CBEC's system with the GST
network before the rollout in April next year.
The
implementation strategy for the project will be to ensure readiness of CBEC's
IT framework by April, 1, 2017, when GST is to be introduced, an official
statement read.
The
Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), chaired by Prime Minister
Narendra Modi has approved Project Saksham, a New Indirect Tax Network (Systems
Integration) of CBEC.
Project
Saksham will help in implementation of goods and services tax (GST), extension of
the Indian Customs Single Window Interface for Facilitating Trade (SWIFT) and
other taxpayer-friendly initiatives under Digital India and Ease of Doing
Business of CBEC.
"All
taxpayers/importers/exporters/dealers under various indirect tax laws administered
by CBEC -- presently about 36 lakh -- are likely to go up to over 65 lakh after
introduction of GST," the statement added.
CBEC's
IT structure needs to integrate with the Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN)
for processing of registration, payment and returns data sent to CBEC as well
as act as a front-end for other modules like audit, appeal and investigation.
There
is no overlap in the GST-related systems of CBEC and GSTN, the statement said.
"This
IT infrastructure is also urgently required for continuation of CBEC's
e-services in Customs, central excise and service tax, implementation of
taxpayer services such as scanned document upload facility, extension of Indian
Customs SWIFT initiative and integration with government initiatives such as e-nivesh,
e-taal and e-sign," the statement added.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Indeed
a very good beginning at integrating Government Departments / Databases /
Processes
I
hope , someday soon , NDA government will take the next step described below ( and sent to all
Ministers as email ) :
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday, 3 April 2014
E - Governance ?
Can e-Governance help eliminate corruption ?
Most certainly
Look at the following , partial list of Central and State
Agencies set up to fight fraud , money-laundering , corruption , tax-evasion ,
economic crimes etc :
> Public Accounts Committee
( PAC )
> Central Vigilance Commission
( CVC )
> Central Information Commission
( CIC )
> Research and Analysis
Wing (
RAW )
> Serious Fraud Investigation Office (
SFIO )
> Information
Bureau
( IB )
> Economic Offence
Wing
( EOW )
> Central Bureau of
Investigation ( CBI )
> Department of Revenue Intelligence ( DIR )
> Comptroller and Auditor
General ( CAG )
> Anti Corruption Bureaus ( States ).... ( ACB
)
> Enforcement
Directorate
( ED )
> Lok Ayukts ( States
)
> Lok Pal
( Central )
Despite such an army of Agencies , how do corrupt manage to get
away ?
Or , in case caught , manage to delay delivery of punishment for
years ?
No doubt , there must be several reasons , including , inter -
agency rivalry to get credit - something difficult to eliminate altogether
But , I believe , the most important reason is :
Lack of a COMMON / COMPUTERIZED database of all offences /
cases / persons being investigated
And , which is readily " Accessible " to all of these
Agencies , all over the country ( 24 * 365 )
Already , every Agency compiles huge dossiers on " Suspects
" in its own
" Departmental Database " , which is never shared with
other Agencies ,
leading to ,
> Huge amount of duplication of efforts /
information
> Fractured / scattered profiles of "
Suspects "
> Enormous waste of time / resources
What will help ?
> Dismantling of individual departmental databases
> Merging of all Agency-wise databases into a SINGLE /
UNIQUE database
> All Agencies to enter their findings / data / info
into this COMMON
database , with nothing preserved on
local computers
> All data-entry FORMS to be ONLINE . No paper forms at
all
> All local computers connected to ultra-secure Network
( Encrypted )
> " Access Rights " to individuals , based on
Biometric Identification
Will BJP want to make this , a prominent promise in their
Poll-Manifesto , likely to be released on 7th April ? ( Congress
/ AAP missed this boat ! )
It is high time political parties stop talking of motherhood in
vague terms and start telling the voters ,
" If you vote us to power , this is precisely what we will
do , to bring about E-GOVERNANCE - and do it within 6 months of assuming
power "
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
30 Sept 2016
www.hemenparekh.in