Govt launches paperless licensing through PESO for road tankers

The commerce and industry ministry on Friday said it has launched a paperless licensing process through the Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation (PESO) for road tankers for transportation, with a view to promote ease of doing business.

This is a significant move towards paperless and green India that will provide simpler mechanism, ease of doing business to petroleum road tanker owners, the ministry said in a statement.

"The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade has launched paperless licensing process through PESO for road tankers for transportation of petroleum under the Petroleum Rules, 2002," it said.

It added that the process will include filing the applications online.

The ministry said this will also include online payment of fees that will go directly to the concerned officer's ID without any manual interface. Applicants, at each stage of processing of the application, will be intimated through SMS and e-mail, whether discrepancy or grant of licence or approval.

The new process will update the applicant at each stage triggering an e-mail and SMS immediately when the licence is granted by the officer concerned and is dispatched electronically, it said.

"All this process will be without any need for printing and physical dispatch. This extraordinary and forward looking initiative is directly going to benefit more than one lakh petroleum road tanker owners who together hold more than half of total licences issued under the Petroleum Rules," it said.

An added advantage of this move, it said, is that the authenticity of the licence can be verified through public domain available on PESO's website.

The ministry said this automation is going to revolutionise the petroleum and gas industry, benefitting it immensely.