IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

The culture of digital transaction may still be a new concept in Nagaland, but the ongoing Digi Dhan Mela (December 12-18, 2017) organized by the Department of Information Technology and Communication (IT&C) at the Civil Secretariat Kohima is providing digital experience for customers with different needs.

Be it purchase of fruits, vegetables, handicrafts and other products or services related to mobile payments and recharge, Aadhaar correction, PAN card services, Indian Passport services, Online GPF, and Mobile-Aadhaar linking, every transaction at the Mela is cashless.

To assist consumers in paying their electricity bill online, phase-1, four-day awareness-cum-demonstration campaign of online electricity bill payment organized by department of power, Dimapur commenced Wednesday, in Dimapur which was officially launched by additional deputy commissioner (ADC) Dimapur, Sarah Jamir.

The phase-1, campaign will be held at Dimapur, Chumukedima and Kohima and will culminate on September 9.

Launching the awareness-cum-demonstration programme, ADC Dimapur, Sarah Jamir pointed out waiting in a queue as one of the reason of not getting enough revenue collection in the power system. She was optimistic that with the system of online payment, without waiting in the queue and without spending money for going to the power department bill section, one can pay the bill with just a click. She reiterated that it would save time, money and help increase the revenue. Sarah further hoped that the power department would create more awareness programme.

After extending the facility of online payment of Value Added Tax to all dealers through 17 banks authorised for the purpose, the Delhi Government is now in the process of adding more banks to this e-governance initiative during the current financial year “to provide a wider choice” to the dealers.

In another major leap forward in the direction of e-governance in filing of taxes, the Delhi Government has also decided to “completely dispense with the physical issuance of the statutory forms need by the inter-State buyers, during the current year”.

This facility, initially, will be available at select ATMs in the major centers and will shortly be made available at all 5,600 plus ATMs across the country, said the bank.

Axis Bank customers holding ATM/ Debit Cards can use this facility to pay Income Tax/ Other Direct Taxes using Axis Bank ATMs.

RBI officials said that while they would have liked to have rolled the pilot out in all the northeastern states, under policy guidelines, 2 per cent of the payment is to be borne by the state government, and no government in the Northeast apart from Meghalaya has been willing to do so thus far.

The Electronics & Information Technology Department is the nodal department for Government of Odisha in the matters of IT, ITES and Communication. The department plays a vital role in formulating and implementing policy matters for information technology, ITES and electronics promotion of the State. Ashok Kumar Meena, Commissionercum-Secretary, Electronics & Information Technology Department of Odisha shares the new policies, plans and strategies undertaken by the State government to promote growth in IT, ITES and ESDM sector in Odisha, in conversation with Biswajit Sahoo of Elets News Network (ENN).

Government subsidy to LPG, Kerosene and fertiliser consumers in the country would be paid online from next year.

Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday inaugurated the e-Payment project which will facilitate direct credit of the subsidy to the bank account of the consumers.

The Union finance ministry has told all state-owned banks and financial institutions to make payments only electronically from next month.

The move is aimed at checking corruption in transfer of funds through cheques and making the entire process transparent and faster. In a circular to all 35 state-run banks and financial institutions, the ministry said they must not make any payment through cheques from September 1.

Though the business correspondent model implemented in a few districts of the State was found suitable, it could not be operationalised in all the districts due to shortcomings of commercial banks.

The Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) has elicited views of the State Government on the proposed real-time transaction in which payments to the workers’ accounts could be made with less possible time.

It's been more than four months since the authorities announced the project and on January 7, the authorities were supposed to float tenders, but as of now, nothing has been finalized. Sources revealed that the civic authorities have always failed in implementing e-governance in the corporation despite several directions from the Centre for allotting funds under various schemes.

Developed by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) the GePG is a portal which enables successful delivery of payment services from Pay & Accounts Offices (PAOs) for online payment into beneficiaries' accounts in a seamless manner under a secure environment.

Over seven years of its launch, the process of online payment of electricity bills of Tangedco is yet to gain currency among customers in the city, more so in the State. While electricity bills can actually be paid with a touch of a button, customers still sweat it out in long queues.

In an RTI application filed by The Hindu, it has emerged that the number of customers making online payment works out to only eight per cent of the total number of customers of 2.48 crore in the State.

Residents of Vellore Corporation can soon pay their taxes and other service charges through an e-payment system.

Software has been developed for an integrated e-governance system for the 11 Corporations and 124 municipalities coming under the Commissionerate of Municipal Administration (CMA). This system was being implemented in a phased manner from September 2015.

A payment gateway has been introduced to enable residents to pay their taxes, non-taxes and other charges to the Corporations/municipalities using credit card/debit card/Internet banking from any place.

This would enable dealers to file returns and make payments with a click of the mouse from any location.

At a function held on Friday, Chief Minister N Rangasamy inaugurated the e-payment service and released the e-payment manual.

More than a year ago, activist-investor Carl Icahn pushed for a split of eBay and PayPal, saying the payment business on its own could grow to $100 billion. eBay eventually agreed to the split and now some valuation estimates floating for Paypal put it at around $40 billion. As a business, Paypal is now growing faster than eBay's e-commerce business. That's the writing on the wall that several investors are looking at in India, as action in the payments business hots up.

The state transport department is ready with the technology to implement the service but the Reserve Bank of India and the State Treasury Department have yet to give the green signal.

“We are ready with the technology aspect, however, the RBI and State Treasury still have to give final clearances. At present, the protocol studies are still on,” said L. Hemanth Kumar, Joint Commissioner, Transport (Environment and E-governance).

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has claimed that West Bengal is the first in the country to make online payment mandatory for treasuries.

Ms Banerjee tweeted, “I am happy to share with all of you that West Bengal has become the first state in the country to make all payments mandatory by the state treasuries through online system under the e-governance platform.

Weeks before the Union Budget, a high-level task force on ‘Aadhaar-Enabled Unified Payment Infrastructure', on Thursday, submitted a report laying out a blueprint for a single-platform e-payment gateway to facilitate the transfer of subsidies and payments for various government schemes. This solution, to be linked to and enabled by Aadhaar, is to provide a standard platform for various government institutions so that they can make payments in an automated manner.

An interoperable network of 10 lakh Business Correspondents, who were conceived as the magic wand to address the objective of financial inclusion, is to use the combined infrastructure of banks and India Post, across the 2.25 lakh gram panchayats in the country.

All transactions, including receipts and payments, of the central government departments would be in electronic mode soon across the country.

“As part of the Digital India programme, all departments of the central government across the country will receive and make payments through the electronic mode,” department of electronics and information technology (DeitY) additional secretary Ajay Kumar said at a tech event here.

With increasing computerisation and internet penetration through broadband network, citizens can transact with all departments from computers, laptops and mobile devices, using e-payment gateways and banks.

The system, covering all central government departments and ministries, is expected to eliminate almost twenty million cheques. When fully operational, it is expected to cover a total payment of over Rs6,00,000 crore (US$122 billion).

GePG will facilitate direct credit of dues from the government into the account of beneficiaries using digitally signed electronic advice (e-advice).