Overview
The Excise Department is one of the major tax revenue earning sources of West Bengal state government. It deals with the administration of the laws and rules relating to (i) manufacture, supply, storage and distribution of country liquor, foreign liquor, beer, other intoxicants and narcotics (ii) collection of duty and fees and (iii) prevention of illegal trade, trafficking and production of illicit Liquor. Maintaining records relating to the stock of excisable commodities, collection of revenues, monitoring the movement of liquor and keeping the personnel information & other establishment matters manually is vast and complex as well. Eventually, monitoring of the excise system is quite cumbersome. In this scenario, the Excise Department has felt it necessary to revise and re-examine its work flow in order to achieve positive effects on revenue flow, service delivery and stakeholder satisfaction.
NIC, as a ICT Consultant has conducted thorough study of the existing system to come out with a web enabled system xPERT. This has become a single system, based on common boundaries — management control, operating environment, security needs and business mission. It is primarily involved with the creation, storage, analysis, dissemination and use of information to provide vital inputs to the government's policy-making process towards effective regulation, revenue administration and attainment of full realizable excise revenue potential of the State.
Reasons for Computerization
- A Computer-based Evolving, Maturing and Integrated, General Support System to provide Improved Management and Support Process for the Administration
- Digital communication between excise nodes viz. Excise Offices at various levels, all the Licensees including Bottlers, Distilleries, Bonds, Trades and Retail shops, SBI personnel (Revenue collection agency on behalf of Excise Department), Consumers, Applicants for licenses and members of the public with the view to establish a centralized data bank that will contain entries for all relevant information pertaining to the movement of excisable goods viz. import, processing, production, distribution, retail and consumption of excisable commodities, transaction of revenues, activities of all functional units of the Excise Directorate and the establishment matters.
- Automation of the issue of Transport Pass, Import Permits & Export Passes, Brand Registration of Foreign Liquors and Grant of Excise License for the next period of settlement
- Better G2B Services to the Excise Licensee, Consumers resulting in more business and thereby more revenue
- Arresting Revenue Leakages through proper monitoring with the aid of IT driven solution
Salient Features
xPERT is a web-based application towards total e-governance of State Excise. The activities which are already made operational are: (a) Preparation of Excise Licensee Master, Packaged Foreign Liquor Brand Owner Master, Packaged Foreign Liquor Brand Bottler Master and other master tables required as perquisite for computerization of Movement of Spirits/Packaged Liquors (b) Design, Development & hosting of the Excise Department Portal www.wbexcise.gov.in (c) Grant of Excise License for the Next Period of Settlement (d) Label Registration of Packaged Foreign Liquor (e) Import Permit/NOC for Molasses (f) Import Permit/Pass for Bulk Spirit (g) Import Permit/Pass for Packaged Foreign Liquor (h) Transport Pass for Packaged Foreign Liquor (i) Export Pass for Packaged Foreign Liquor (j) Collection of Excise Duties/Fees through online bank payment gateway (k) Transport Pass for Colored Spirit & Colored &/or Flavored Spirit (l) Transport Pass for Bulk Spirit (m) Inventory Systems at the Production Units (n) Computerization of other functional units of the Excise Directorate viz. Law Section, Organization Section, Preventive Organizations Section, Narcotic Cell, Special Section, Training Institute, Chemical Examination Laboratory & Internal Audit Wing.
Purpose
- Overcome Inherent inefficiencies and Slow activity processes in Manual system
- More Revenue generation through activity mapping and lessening leakages
- Any time flow of information at all levels and generation of MIS
- Shorter turn around time
- Penetration of Information Technology at all levels within the Department
Relevance to Governance
o Online Reconciliation of Revenue Unit wise on Daily basis and hence to get better results in terms of arresting revenue leakages
o Online Tracking of Status of different processes viz. Grant of License, Issuances of Transport Pass, Import Permit & Export Pass
o Reduce Activity Cost, total process cycle time & waiting time for the Licensees and thereby increasing throughput of the system\
o Better G2B, G2C & G2C Services
Target Audience
o Excise Officials at various levels
o All the Licensees including Manufacturers, Distilleries, Bonds, Trades and Retail shops
o SBI personnel (Revenue collection agency on behalf of Excise Department)
o Consumers,
o Applicants for licenses and members of the public
Modes of Participation
All the stakeholders connect xPERT through Leased Line, Broadband Connectivity to do the followings:-
o Excise Licensees to put Requisition online for issuance of Permits/Passes for Movement of Molasses, Country Spirit, Foreign Liquor and other excisable commodities within & outside the state
o Excise Licensees to put application online for Grant of License for the next period of settlement
o Competent Authorities of the Excise Directorate to act on the Requisitions / Applications to issue Permits / Licenses
o Competent Authorities to work online to impose, regulate effective implementation of Excise Acts & Rules relating with Administration, Revenue Collection
o Consumers to hook xPERT online to query relating with the availability, price and retailing location of Liquors
o Public to put online application for issuance of Excise License
o Public to know online relevant information from the Excise Portal pertaining to the functions, point of contacts and other relevant information
USABILITY OF WEB Interface
Search
The special feature of xPERT is its MIS module. It provides with ample number search facilities as per users requirements.
Help
xPERT is developed as user friendly application software keeping in mind that the target audience may be even the small retail shops at remote villages of the state.
Accessibility
xPERT is designed & developed in such a way so that it can be accessed in role-based manner through implementation of predefined Authentication & Authorization policy.
OUTCOMES of xPERT
Major functions
1. Grant of Excise License – “Grant of license for the next period of settlement”
2. Registration of Excisable products – “brand/label registration”
3. Collection and Monitoring of Excise Revenue from movement of liquor & spirits through the issue of Permits & Passes for
a. Import into the State from other states/countries – Import Permit cum pass
b. Export from the state to other states/countries – Export pass, and
c. Transport within the state – Transport Pass
4. Circle & Range Office Automation
5. All Security solutions at Machine & Application Level to ensure authenticity of transactions
6. Inventory Control System at the Production Units of Liquors (Distilleries, Manufactories, Bottling Plants) and Other Backend Processes
7. Introduction of Smart card in the form of Excise Licenses
- Citizen Interface for use of General Public regarding all areas of Excise Directorate viz. Grant of License Procedures, List of FL Off/On Shops, Availability of liquors, their prices etc to ensure transparency as enunciated by RTI Act, Government of India
9. Building up of Knowledge Intranet within excise domain for ready availability of Excise Acts & Rules, Notifications etc.
10. Activities pertaining to all functional units (10 units) of State Excise Directorate viz.
a. Distilleries and Warehouse Section
b. Law Section
c. Foreign Liquor Section
d. Organization Section
e. Preventive Organizations Section
f. Narcotic Cell
g. Special Section
h. Training Institute
i. Chemical Examination Laboratory
j. The Internal Audit Wing
11. e-Payment through designated Bank’s Payment Gateway
12. Integration with Treasuries Information System for Revenue Reconciliation
13. Integration with Commercial Tax Database for monitoring and checking of Revenue Leakage at Check posts during Import and Export of Liquor and Spirit
14. Information System on Consumption of Liquor by General Public
15. Providing Value Added Services to be delivered to Licensees to forecast the demands of Liquor Brands & Spirits
16. Integration with the Computerized Systems pertaining to other State Governments to achieve better authentication of passes and permits
(c) i. Scope
§ Automation of the (i) issue of Transport Pass, Import Permits & Export Passes of Molasses, Bulk Spirits, Packaged Foreign Liquor and (ii) Grant of License for the next period of settlement
§ Online Tracking of Status of different processes viz. Grant of License, Issuances of Permits & Passes
§ Online Reconciliation of Revenue Unit wise on Daily basis and hence to get better results in terms of arresting revenue leakages
§ Reduce Activity Cost, total process cycle time & waiting time for the Licensees and thereby increasing throughput of the system
§ Better G2B Services resulting in more business and thereby more revenue
(c) ii. Boundary
§ 21 Excise District Offices
§ 151 Circle Offices
§ 57 Range Offices
§ Around 3793 Licensees including Distilleries, Bottlers, Bonds, Trades & Retails
(c) Stakeholders with levels (viz. central level, state level, business, individuals etc.)
- State Level: Officials of the Excise Department located in the State Secretariat, Excise Directorate, District level, Range/Zone level, and Circle level and also those officials posted in the Excise Licensee Premises like Distilleries, Manufactory & Non-Manufactory Bonds etc. Besides, the State Level Stakeholders of xPERT comprises of the Commercial Tax Directorate, Treasury & Transport Department.
- Business Level: Around 4000 Excise Licensees of Distilleries, Manufactory & Non-Manufactory Bonds, Trades, Retails including all Off & On Shops/Hotels located in the state of West Bengal. Besides xPERT is related with the Distilleries, Bottlers & Brand Owners located in other States and even those located outside the country producing Overseas Foreign Liquors. Besides, the Business Level Stakeholders of xPERT comprises of the State Bank of India (Payment Gateway), BSNL (providing the Broadband Connectivity).
- Individual Level: Common Citizen applying for Excise Licenses or, in search of information pertaining the prices, availability of packaged foreign liquor etc.
xPERT is being developed so as to deliver the following services: -
G2B Services:
(i) Grant of New Licenses and Renewal of Licenses for the next period of settlement. A fee is taken from the Licensees for the Grant and renewal of their Licenses.
(ii) Registration of finished products (Liquor) of the bottlers, which is essential for trading that product in the state. Revenue is generated thro' registration of Labels
(iii) Fees earned by issue of Import Permit cum Pass, Export Pass and Transport Pass from the Licensees with respect to Movement of Liquor. Excise Duty is also realized at the time of movement of liquor.
(iv) Fines and Penalties imposed on Licensees for violating provisions of Excise Acts and Rules.
G2G Services:
(i) The Government can have a view of total Licensees of the State (District wise / Category wise / Sub-Category wise)
(ii) The Government can have a view of Licensees who have their Licenses renewed / not renewed
(iii) The Government can have a view of total registered products for a particular duration
(iv) The Government can have a view of total Import Permits, Export Passes and Transport Passes issued for the whole state for a particular duration (District-wise) including the number of requisitions that have been submitted by the Licensees for Permits and Passes on daily basis and the number of these have been served.
(v) The System can help the Government provide better services to the Licensees and assessment of revenue (District-wise for duration) on real time.
(vi) The Government can also have a ready record on available stock of Liquor and Spirit and consumption of Liquor and Spirit for duration. This will be a planning tool for the Government for fixing targets towards revenue generation.
(vii) Streamlining and Systematizing Inter-departmental and Intra-Departmental information resulting in increased efficiency in Administration, cutting down response times and delivering better service, controlling crimes and preventing revenue leakages and knowledge sharing.
G2C Services:
(i) Through introduction of suitable GPR (Government Process Re-engineering) in the process of Renewal of Licenses for the Licensees within the State, the waiting time has been be reduced considerably. So, better service can be provided to the Licensees/ Businesses.
(ii) The waiting time for getting permits and passes by the Licensees for Import / Export / Transport of Liquor will be minimized through introduction of GPR in the System.
(iii) Citizens can have details of Off/On Shop in his/her locality and availability of Liquor (Type/Brand wise) in the shops with their price and all other procedures, rules of the Excise Department.
G2E Services:
i. The System can help the employees to produce relevant reports in minimum possible time for management purposes and this will substantially improve the office processes thro' the MIS being developed.
ii. Benefit to employees thro' Computerization of ten functional units (including Personnel Information System and Payroll).
iii. Employees can have access to all the Excise rules regarding their domain of work
Benefits which can be Accrued
• Online Reconciliation of Revenue Unit wise on Daily basis and hence to get better results in terms of arresting revenue leakages
• Online Tracking of Status of different processes viz. Grant of License, Issuances of Transport Pass, Import Permit & Export Pass
• Increase revenue for Government through Integration with Treasuries and Commercial Tax Application of West Bengal and other States in India with respect to Permits and Passes
• Reduce Activity Cost, total process cycle time & waiting time for the Licensees and thereby increasing throughput of the system
Present Status
• West Bengal State Excise Department Portal www.wbexcise.gov.in along with Online Generation Module of Import Permit-cum-Pass for Bulk Spirit is being launched on 07/12/2011.