Delhi govt begins trial of 'e-Abkari' to replace excise information system

The Delhi government on Thursday started trial run of an NIC-developed e-Abkari portal to replace the existing excise supply chain information management system platform to handle retail liquor business, officials said.

During the trial period, the e-Abkari portal will be used by 10 liquor vends operated by each of four government corporations as well as over 30 excise licensed hotels, clubs and restaurants, said a source in the Excise department.

The portal will be used for placing stock orders, generate transit permits and complete other formalities online by the selected licensees, he said.

The excise supply chain information management system (ESCIMS) portal developed by a private IT firm for the Excise department of Delhi government and being operated since 2013 will be replaced once the e-Abkari website is fully ready after the trial run, he said.

The officials said the Excise department teams were preparing for the adoption of e-Abkari portal developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) for months and visited different states including Punjab to learn about its functioning.

The department had to shift from ESCIMS to the e-Abkari portal earlier this year but it could not happen because of some technical issues. After the agreement of the government with the IT firm ended, the ESCIMS was being operated by the Excise department itself.

The portal in September remained down for several days due to some technical snag, causing shortage of liquor at the retail outlets as well as revenue loss of several hundred crores to the government, they added.