IfG.CC - The Potsdam eGovernment Competence Center

In a last-ditch effort to offer good-governance at its citizens’ doorsteps, the Andhra Pradesh government is spearheading the concept of converting STD (Subscriber Trunk Dialing) booths into ’Service Delivery Points’ (SDPs). The state government has recently issued an e-government order (e-GO Ms No.13) with an administrative sanction of Rs 3.75 crore offering either 15 per cent of the cost or a maximum of Rs 7,500 per unit as subsidy towards the cost of conversion. According to All India Sanchar Seva PCO Society president G Satyanarayana Reddy, Andhra Pradesh will have about 10,000 SDPs operational by March 31, 2003. “The state government is extending the subsidy to 5,000 rural SDPs and in urban areas, the society has taken up the work to convert another 5,000 STD booths into SDPs,” Mr Reddy told eFE.

To offer G2C (government to citizen), G2B (government to business) and B2C (business to customer) services, a sum of Rs 50,000 is required towards new hardware and software, thus converting the STD booths into full-fledged ’service delivery point’ envisaged by the government. While the Andhra Pradesh government is extending the subsidy for conversion of rural STD booths, urban booth owners have themselves decided to set up SDP centres without the subsidy. The likely boom in operations is expected to make the project profitable.

“We have already approached the banks and about 33 banks in the state have come forward to provide loan facilities irrespective of subsidy and there is no need for the STD booth owner to bring any collateral security,” Mr Reddy said. The society has, so far, enrolled over 400 representatives to organise groups in each urban locality having a population of over 1 lakh, he added.

Each rural STD booth owner has to invest about Rs 7,500 and the remaining Rs 42,500 will be funded through a state subsidy of Rs 7,500 and bank loan to the tune of Rs 35,000.

The SDPs will offer services to the customers through a revenue-sharing arrangement with government portals like APOnline, eSeva and eProcurement. The state government will issue guidelines on service charges to be collected by the SDPs. The SDPs may also be allowed to offer services for private portals and a separate revenue model may be worked out for those services, officials said.

Quelle: The Financial Express