Cabinet secretary may soon call meeting of DIPP, CBEC, MoEF on eBiz

eBiz portal aims at providing one-stop clearance platform for investment proposals

Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth is expected to soon convene a meeting of officials of Environment Ministry, DIPP and CBEC to resolve issues related with eBiz portal, which aims at providing one-stop clearance platform for investment proposals.

The eBiz project by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion's (DIPP) aims at providing all business and investment-related regulatory services across central, state and local governments on a single platform.

As many as 26 central and 24 state services are integrated with the portal, but the Environment and Forest Ministry and the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) have some reservations about the project.

The DIPP has already circulated a draft note for the Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure (CCI) to bring on board these two departments.

"But the Cabinet Secretary wants to meet the officials of these departments before approaching the Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure (CCI)," a source told PTI.

Earlier, Commerce and Industry Ministry Anand Sharma has said that the ministry would approach the CCI on the matter.

"Two departments which have not come on board are CBEC and the Ministry of Environment and Forest. Environment and forest is important because we see delays that lead to weakening of our growth and also the cost of projects keeps on rising and exposure of financial institutions to various projects is also enormous," Sharma had said.

The eBiz project is one of the integrated mission mode projects under the National e-Governance Plan of the government.

The Rs 87 crore project aims at improving India's ranking in ease of doing business.

The portal is expected to help in transforming the business environment in the country by providing transparent and integrated electronic services to investors in the areas of information on forms and procedures, licenses, permits, registrations, approvals, clearances, payments and compliances throughout the life-cycle of an industry or business entity.

In the first phase, the project would be implemented in five states - Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Delhi and Haryana-- and in the second phase another five - West Bengal, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh - will be integrated with portal.