The Excise Department is a major revenue collecting establishment for the Government of West Bengal. It specifically performs following activities:

Granting and regulating licenses for the manufacture, wholesale and retail sale of liquor & spirits used for the manufacture of liquor.

Authorizing the manufacture and / or sale of brands of bottled liquor in the state, through a process of registration of brands of foreign liquor, colored and flavored spirit, and country spirit, and of the labels under which they can be manufactured and / or sold.

Regulating the movement of liquor and spirits used for manufacture of liquor, into, throughout and from the state, through the grant and administration of relevant import, export and transport passes.

Operating mechanisms for collection of state excise duties on liquor, and fees and other levies charged and imposed by the government on the manufacture, distribution, and sale of liquor.

Carrying out enforcement activities against illegal manufacture of liquor, and against distribution and sale of such illegally manufactured liquor, and liquor on which the requisite state excise duties and / or fees have not been paid.

Regulating the manufacture, supply, distribution and sale of spirits and narcotic drugs for medicinal and industrial purposes, by issuing and administering relevant licenses, permits and passes.

After a detailed ‘As-Is Study’ and identification of key challenges faced by West Bengal State Excise, the department felt the need to track the production, distribution and sale of bottled liquor in West Bengal and at the same time, monitor the inventories at the different establishments across the state from a central location on a real-time basis.

A project for e-Governance enablement entitled e-Abgari was undertaken in 2010. It is designed as a single system, based on common boundaries — management control, operating environment, security needs and business

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BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE PROJECT

mission. It is primarily involved with the creation, storage, analysis, dissemination and use of information to provide vital inputs to the government's policy-making process towards effective regulation, revenue administration and attainment of full realizable excise revenue potential of the State.

The Excise Officials, Excise Licensees & other stakeholders connect with State Excise Portal https:// www.wbexcise.gov.in for exchange of information through online operation of excise functions. This has envisaged in establishing a centralized data bank which contains entries for all relevant information pertaining to the Excise Licensees, Registered Packaged Liquor Brands, Production and Movement of excisable goods, Transaction of revenues and Activities of functional units of the Excise Directorate.

To increase operational efficiency and citizen satisfaction, e-Abgari has taken a holistic view of state excise procedures, paying more attention to Government Process Re-engineering (GPR). It has enabled the procedural changes in various front and back office processes to enable faster delivery of services, optimization of operational cost and improvement in quality of service delivery.

e-Abgari facilitates around 6, 000 excise licensees, members of citizens, the department officials and officials of other administrative departments. Each Licensee under the purview of e-Abgari is identified by a unique identification number valid for the entire state.

Some of the key e-services improving the stakeholder-service include: E-Grant of License, E-Return by Licensees, E-Registration of Packaged Liquor Labels, E-Payments of Duties & Fees, E-Permits & E-Passes for movement of Bulk Spirit & Packaged Liquor, E-Chemical Analysis Laboratory, E-Reporting of Preventive raids, E-Monitoring of Court Cases, E-Grievance Redressal, e-Abgari Mobile Apps etc.

e-Abgari also facilitates generation & printing of 1D linear Barcodes on Excise Permits/Passes and is in the process of generating 2D Barcodes for affixing on liquor bottles/containers

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for gathering information easily at various points of the liquor supply-chain in the state. This, in turn, enable the government to track the production, distribution and sale of liquor in West Bengal and monitor the inventory of foreign liquor and country spirit manufactories, trade warehouses and liquor retail outlets throughout the state.

e-Abgari is associated with following innovative practices:- Pendency Checker for tracking process pendency for all hierarchy levels Dynamic dashboard feature for individual user role type Provisioning of inbox and alerts according to the user role type Web service for SMS gateway integration; auto SMS notification facility Application tracking (status, remark trail) on the fly by few clicks Extracting process status through PULL SMS Checking authenticity of Bar-coded Permits/Passes on road through e-

Abgari mobile apps by excise officers using smart phone devices

e-Abgari has reduced activity cost, total process cycle time & waiting time for the Licensees and thereby increasing throughput of the system. This has made immense impact in achieving significant revenue growth in recent years.

Total number of Transactions effected through e-Abgari

FY 2014-15 [April 2014 to June 2014] 4 Months 16,64,670

FY 2013-2014 [April 2013 to March 2014] 12 Months 7,05,582

FY 2012-2013 [April 2012 to March 2013] 12 Months 32,315

FY 2011-2012 [April 2011 to March 2012] 12 Months 9,165

** above figures on total e-Services are derived from eTaal & e-Abgari Database

Key Success Indicator FY 2009-2010 FY 2013-2014

Revenue (in INR Crore) 1077.64 3000.57

Sales (In Crore bulk litres) 30.078 46.387

Monitoring of Illegal Activities (No. of cases) 49602 51616

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Duty Collection from e-Payment (in %) 0 98.2

Total Number of Computers 54 369

With e-Abgari, the State Excise has brought the services of the department closer to the doorstep of the citizens through “anywhere anytime services”, simplified and streamlined the procedures of the department by eliminating non-value adding processes from the system and made excise administration transparent with fair and unbiased service at the lowest cost. It also acts as an effective tool to ensure that all liquor and other intoxicants available in the state for the consumers are sourced through legal channels without any loss of revenue to the state government on account of excise duties and import fees.

The remarkable point is that e-Abgari has been developed in-house by a dedicated team of Excise Department itself with technical support from NIC. The Government, right from the Hon'ble Minister-In-Charge, Principal Secretary, Commissioner and Department functionaries has worked in a synchronized manner to achieve this massive task of creating necessary physical and e-infrastructure, coordinating developments and taking benefits to the public.

e-Abgari project is a noteworthy effort and sets an example for other projects in West Bengal in its approach towards piloting a project, as well as its rolling out and sustenance.

The key challenges faced by the West Bengal State Excise Department as identified during a study of ‘As-Is’ processes before deployment of e-Abgari project may be summarized as follows:

Inefficient operating environment leading to unnecessary delays and inaccurate information:

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CHALLENGES FACED BEFORE DEPLOYMENT OF THE PROJECT

Majority of regulatory and enforcement operations of West Bengal State Excise were then being performed manually. With limited human resources and increase in business, it was becoming difficult for the department to cope with the workload which ultimately led to delays and inaccuracies in the information provided.

Lack of transparency & control over the movement of excisable goods leading to increased illicit liquor production and loss of Excise revenues:

West Bengal Excise Department did not have an effective mechanism in place to trace the excisable goods incoming / leaving the manufacturers and wholesalers’ premise and keep control of the activities at these premises. The import/transport permits /passes issued to the transporter of goods were done manually on paper, making it difficult for the department to keep track of goods at real time and to decipher patterns of suspicious activities.

Lack of a robust information management system: West Bengal Excise Department did not have a robust MIS in place and most of the records/information was maintained in physical files. Hence searching and retrieving any information was an inefficient and a time consuming process. Also the reconciliation & consolidation of stocks from physical registers of distilleries and manufactories at multiple locations was done manually resulting in increased time and decreased accuracy.

Lack of a standard reporting and analysis mechanism:

The Excise Department was using multiple reporting formats and no provision was available for performing a real time analysis of the reported data (revenue figures, production data etc.) in order to draw important insights/inferences from them.

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Requirement Gathering:

Requirement Gathering was found to be a major challenge as the rift was huge between the systems oriented architecture and the current process. The volatility of the requirements was augmented due to the inadequate computer literacy of the end-users.

Data Migration:

Data needed to be migrated by the excise authorities from a variety of sources varying from legacy systems to registers. Verification has also been a challenge owing to lack of pre-defined standards.

Change Management:

In order to have sustainable e-Governance initiatives, the challenge before Excise Department was in bringing a paradigm shift in providing services to the stakeholders of the department. This necessitated attitudinal change, technological skill enhancement, adaptability to respond to stakeholder requirements in ever demanding scenario and commitment to provide superlative services.

The major challenges in change management before deployment of e-Abgari were (a) Processes were not streamlined – different processes in different offices (b) IT awareness (c) Risk of IT system replacing manpower (d) Fear of using system and working on system (e) E-services awareness (f) Risk of information loss (g) Process simplification and re-Engineering – communication.

The department envisaged a paperless environment and reduced visits to government offices in accordance with the e-governance policy of the Government of West Bengal. This required the department to re-engineer and optimize its current processes and bring about a change in its culture in moving towards a more computerized environment.

This in turn necessitated creation of teams for successful implementation of e-Governance projects, preparation of detailed project reports for each of the

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activities under e-Governance like software development, data digitization, sustainability model, site preparation, process re-engineering, capacity building, training to departmental manpower resources etc.

Capacity Building Challenges

Imparting training and capacity building was a major challenge for the department owing to the geographical distance and other issues. Staff members were used to the manual way of working and resistance to accept processes after GPR came from the employees who were nearing their superannuation. Skill sets required to handle IT systems were limited. Trained officials and also officials holding various authorities in the computerised business process workflow are often transferred or retire. This in turn necessitated repetitive training leading to delay in implementation.

Technology-Related Challenges

Before deployment of e-Abgari, one of the major challenges was related to lower bandwidth & intermittent Internet connectivity and interrupted power supply in different excise locations spread throughout the State. In rural areas, computer hardware and internet connectivity were not even available.

Besides, in the realm of dynamically changing business process of state excise system and with overwhelming data collected as outcome of those processes, it was very difficult to transform the data as business intelligence input to the excise authorities.

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Previously, all regulatory and enforcement operations of West Bengal State Excise were performed manually. With limited human resources and increase in business, it was becoming difficult for the department to cope with the workload. In light of the above, e-Abgari was developed with the following objectives.

To overcome inherent inefficiencies and slow processes in manual system To utilise the potential efficiencies in public service delivery as well as

economic benefits from the digital economy To build a computer-based evolving, maturing and integrated general

support system to provide improved management and support process for the administration

To improve MIS system by keeping control over the movement of the excisable products in order to bring greater transparency

To help deliver the services efficiently and more precisely and hence enable reduction in processing time for key internal functions of the State Excise Department

To enable the department in generating actionable information for taking effective measures against dangerous substances and illicit liquor for protection of people and minimizing deleterious effects of illicit liquor

To enable increase in excise revenue through greater traceability, transparency and accountability in tax administration and detection of tax evasion

To put up digital communication between excise nodes viz. Excise Offices at various levels, all the licensees including bottlers, distilleries, trades and retail shops, Banks (revenue collection agency on behalf of Excise Department), consumers, applicants for new licenses and members of the public with a view to establish a centralized data bank that will contain entries for all relevant information pertaining to the movement of excisable goods viz. import, processing, production, distribution, retail and consumption of excisable commodities, transaction of revenues, activities of all functional units of the Excise Directorate and the establishment matters.

To automate the issuance of Import Permit-cum-Pass & Transport Pass for bulk spirit and packaged liquor, generation of excise verification certificate, Packaged Liquor Label Registration Certificate and Grant of Excise License for

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THE OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT

the next period of settlement, Computerization of Chemical examination Laboratory etc.

To facilitate shorter turnaround time for the Stakeholders of West Bengal State Excise

To improve the quality of services to the Excise Licensees, existing Consumers through activity mapping and reducing leakages resulting in more business and thereby more revenue of the Government

To arrest the revenue leakages through proper monitoring with the aid of IT driven solutions

To enable 24x7 flow of information at all levels and generation of MIS To enable penetration of Information Technology at all levels within the

Department To have an up-to-date databank for entire West Bengal State Excise

a. To develop capabilities to analyze the available data and come to logical conclusion to help in increasing the revenue and have better control on the movement of liquor through adoption of a business intelligence module in e-Abgari with the aid of strong MIS support system

To have at a glance review of preventive operations against illegal manufacture and sale of liquor

To have an automated supply chain management system for excisable components and hence to maintain electronic audit trail to ascertain authenticity of the information.

To have 360 degree profiling of license holders and packaged liquor brands To have seamless and hassle free electronic payment mechanism for excise

duty & fees To have a grievance redressal system to enable collection of complaints

thereby increasing enforcement activities Seamless communication amongst excise officers and thereby improving

their performances To achieve green e-Governance and reduction of carbon footprint

Specifically, e-Abgari is designed with the objectives to render following e-Services:-

G2B ServicesPage 9 of 41

Grant of Licenses for the next period of settlement Issuance of Permits/Passes for Import/Transport of Bulk Spirit & Packaged

Liquor Label Registration of Packaged Liquor, which is essential for trading the

product in the state Introduction of suitable Government Process Re-engineering (GPR) for

betterment in delivery mechanism of services by Excise Department Enabling hassle free collection mechanism of duties/fees

G2G Services The Government can have a view of total Licensees of the State (District

wise / Category wise / Sub-Category wise) The Government can have a view of Licensees who have their Licenses

renewed / not renewed The Government can have a view of total registered products for a

particular duration The Government can have a view of total Import Permits and Transport

Passes issued for the whole state for a particular duration (District-wise) including the number of requisitions that have been submitted by the Licensees for Permits and Passes on daily basis and the number of these have been served.

The System can help the Government provide better services to the Licensees and assessment of revenue (District-wise for duration) on real time.

The Government can also have a ready record on available stock of Liquor and Spirit and consumption of Liquor and Spirit for duration. This will be a planning tool for the Government for fixing targets towards revenue generation.

Leakage of Revenue can be arrested. Streamlining and Systematizing Inter-departmental and Intra-

Departmental information resulting in increased efficiency in Administration, cutting down response times and delivering better service, controlling crimes and preventing revenue leakages and knowledge sharing.

G2C ServicesPage 10 of 41

Citizens can have details of Off/On Shop in his/her locality and availability of Liquor (Type/Brand wise) in the shops with their price and all other procedures, rules of the Excise Department.

G2E Services The System can help the employees to produce relevant reports in

minimum possible time for management purposes and this will substantially improve the office processes thro' the MIS being developed.

Benefit to employees thro' implementation of Generic Application Software (including Personnel Information System and COSA).

Employees can have access to all the Excise rules regarding their domain of work through State Excise Portal & Knowledge Intranet.

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e-Abgari is developed as a web enabled application with ASP.NET 3.5 and MS SQL Server 2008 as Backend Database. Database is mounted on Windows Server 2008. It is at National Data Centre, New Delhi with DR sites located at Pune & Hyderabad. e-Abgari Portal uses standard Web technologies and techniques such as secure sockets layer (SSL), HTTP redirects, cookies, JavaScript to deliver the single sign-in service. The software is developed using latest available tools and follows e-government standards. Concepts such as SOA, XML SOAP etc. have been used. e-Abgari is designed & developed in such a way so that it can be accessed in role-based manner through implementation of predefined Authentication & Authorization policy. e-Abgari is developed & deployed as per guidelines for Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP). It is made live only after getting Cyber Security Clearance Certificate from STQC followed by CSD, NIC(Hqrs.).

Various Online e-Services are being delivered through State Excise Portal https://www.wbexcise.gov.in, which are follows:-

Workflow based System for Grant of Excise License for the Next Period of Settlement

e-Application by Excise Licensees for Grant of License Uploading of relevant documents e-Submission of Application to Range Officer

e-Issuance of Acknowledgement to Excise Licensee e-Acting on Application by Excise Officer either to Hold on or, to Forward

the Application to Excise Collector e-Acting on Forwarded Application by Excise Collector to Hold on, or Seek

Clarification or e-Issuance of Excise License for the Next Period of Settlement

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DESCRIPTION OF THE SOLUTION IMPLEMENTED. PLEASE DESCRIBE THE GOVERNANCES PRACTICES INVOLVED

Workflow based System for Label Registration of Packaged Foreign Liquor & Packaged Country Spirit

e-Application for Label Registration e-Issuance of Acknowledgement e-Issuance of Label Registration Certificate e-Application for Renewal of Label Registration e-issuance of Renewed Label Registration

Workflow based System for Import Permit-cum-Pass for (a) Bulk Spirit (b) SDS, Methanol (c) Spirit for Medicinal Purposes

e-Requisition by Licensee for Import Permit-cum-Pass e-Issuance of Bar-coded Import Permit-cum-Pass by Competent Authority e-Receipts of Imported Consignment & automatic updating of Stock e-Issuance of Excise Verification Certificate (EVC) by Competent Authority

Workflow based System for Import Permit-cum-Pass for Packaged Foreign LiquorPackaged Foreign Liquor can be imported from other states on payment of duty. The e-Abgari system enables the importer to place requisition and deposit relevant duty/fee at his own convenience. Besides, as the database for Registered Brands are maintained in e-Abgari, it is automatically ensured that Licensee can import only those brands which are registered at Excise Directorate for current financial year. Information on the status of the requisition is available to the importer on real time basis.

e-Requisition for Import Permit-cum-Pass for Packaged Foreign Liquor Acting on the Requisition electronically by the Competent Authorities e-Issuance of Bar-coded Import Permit-cum-Pass for Packaged Foreign

Liquor printed on Security Paper supplied by the Government Press e-Receipts of Imported Consignment & automatic updating of Stock e-Issuance of Excise Verification Certificate (EVC)

Stock Inventory System for Foreign Liquor / Country Spirit Manufactory, Manufactory adjacent Trades, Exclusive Trades

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a. Manufactory e-Receipts of Spirit e-Stock Inventory of Strong Spirit (SST) VAT e-Issuance of Spirit to Blending & Reduction (BRT) VAT for production of

a Brand of Specified Batch e-Issuance of 2D Barcode for pasting on Liquor Containers (provision

available) e-Recording of Produced Packaged Foreign Liquor – Measure, Total

Cases/Bottles e-Transfer of Produced Bottles to the Stock of Adjunct Bond Real Time / Daily / Monthly Stock Inventory of Spirit in Manufactory

b. Warehouse e-Receipts from Manufactory OR e-Receipts through Import from Other

States e-Issuance of Bottles to Trades through De-bonding (Transport Pass) e-Stock Inventory of Packaged Liquors

c. Trades e-Receipts from Manufactory OR e-Receipts through Import from Other

States e-Issuance of Bottles to Trades/Retails through Transport Pass e-Stock Inventory of Packaged Liquors

Workflow based System for Transport Pass for Packaged Foreign Liquor / Country SpiritFor movement of Liquor within the state, Transport Pass is necessary. The e-Abgari automatically determines the type of transport considering the nature of license of the Consignee & Consignor. Besides, as the database for Stock is maintained in e-Abgari, it is automatically ensured that the Consignee can place a requisition for only those brands which have adequate balance in the Consignor’s stock. e-Requisition for Transport Pass for Packaged Liquor e-Issuance of Transport Pass for Packaged Liquor e-Receipts of Transported Consignment

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Automatic updating of Stock at both Consignee & Consignor ends

Monthly e-Return for Manufactory, Bond-cum-Trade, Exclusive Trades & Retail Licensees Receipts of Spirit / Packaged Foreign Liquor Issuance of Spirit / Packaged Foreign Liquor Excise Duty / Fee Deposited

e-Bond Value Register (e-BVR) and e-PL Account RegisterMost Important Statutory Registers at Manufactories indicate (a) the eligibility for Under Bond Import/Transport of spirit and (b) Status of Revenue Deposition at Government Accounts

Automatic Recording of Transactions (Credit & Debit) Generation & Printing of Monthly & Yearly Registers

Business Intelligence (BI) System

Unparalleled analytical ability to Excise Officers Aiding to analyze trends and understand the pattern followed in

production, consumption, revenue generation etc. Performing comparative analysis vis-à-vis district, time, location, liquor

type, manufacturing unit, etc. and draw important inferences based on time-series data in the central repository

Helping trend analysis in forecasting the sales and revenue generation for subsequent years and take informed decisions in case of variation in revenues and sales

Monthly Online e-Reporting System for Intoxicant Consumption & Revenue Receipts by Excise Collectors

Online Daily Preventive Raid e-Reporting System by Excise Collectors of all districts

SMS based e-Services at State Excise Portal

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Aims to utilize the massive reach of mobile phones and harness the potential of mobiles to enable easy and round-the-clock access to G2B, G2C & G2G services

PUSH SMS: Auto-sending of SMS to Excise Licensees, Excise Officers in the events of Requisition Submission for Permits/Passes by Excise Licensees, Requisition Forwarding by Excise Officers, Permit /Pass Generation by Competent Authorities, Label Registration Certificate Issuance etc.

PULL SMS: Allows the Stakeholders to request for and receive information pertaining to Application/Requisition/Permit/Pass as an SMS. All anybody needs to do is SMS: - WBGET <Sub-Keyword><Full or, Part of Requisition/Permit/Pass No.> and send it to 9231025205.

e-Chemical Examination Laboratory

To streamline the process of chemical examination of samples and seized articles and to monitor the disposal of articles analyzed

E-Submission of Requisition for Chemical Analysis of both Industrial & Court Case Samples by Stakeholders

Receipt of Physical Samples & Generation of Receipts e-Allotment of Sample Testing e-Generation of Sample Analysis Results for E-Issuance to the Applicant

e-Court Case Monitoring

Because of the enormous volume of pending cases, it was becoming very difficult for the Law Cell of the Excise Directorate to have the life cycle details of a Court Case within a stipulated period of time, since cases may drag on for years. Therefore it was felt that an e-monitoring system needs to be developed.

Ensures details on engagement of Lawyers, Court Case life cycle management, Case wise Petitioner List & Respondent List, Hearing Details and Case wise status enquiry by the intended stake holders

Ease of Monitoring of Court Cases for Excise department with combinational query features

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Less time-consumption for searching a specific case and all its related cases (Appeals against the said case & the cases which lead to this case)

e-Grievance Redressal

To ensure that the Excise Licensees & Citizens get responsive, accountable and transparent administration, redress of citizens' grievances is one of the most important initiatives of West Bengal Excise Department. The Public Grievance Monitoring System (PGMS) is made available in Excise Directorate Portal with an objective of speedy redressal and effective monitoring of Grievances.

Online Registration of Grievance Generation of Grievance Id. & Acknowledgement Auto-SMS to the Complainant acknowledging receipt of Grievance Auto-SMS Alert to Officer-In-Charge with which Grievance is related Auto-SMS sent to Complainant informing Action Taken

Details on the extent of Integration with other e-Governance Projects

Integrated with West Bengal Government Payment Gateway GRIPS (Government Receipt Payment Portal System) enabling monitoring of real time excise duty collected through challans submitted in the GRIPS system of the Finance Department

Integrated with NIC SMS Gateway for pushing Alerts as SMS and facilitating to pull status information as SMS from e-Abgari

Integrated with http://etaal.gov.in, which is the web portal for dissemination of e-Transactions statistics of National and State level e-Governance Projects on real time basis

Integrated with West Bengal State Commercial Tax Directorate Portal for real time exchange of data pertaining to Way Bills issued for excisable commodities

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e-Abgari project covers all stakeholders in the excise value chain in the state of West Bengal.

Boundary 26 Excise District Offices 107 Excise Range Offices 283 Excise Circle Offices 5969 Excise Licensees, category wise details of which as follows:-

Distillery 4 Brewery 2Country Spirit Bottling Plant 35 Country Spirit Depot 15FL Manufactory 31 FL Bonded Warehouse-cum-

Trade 72

FL Trade 130 Special Section 724Retail - 50 deg UP FL Shop 16 Retail - Beer, Wine & LAB Shop 6Retail - Bhang Off Shop 19 Retail - Club, theatre, public

resort 81

Retail - Converted FL Off Shop 53 Retail - CS Off & On Shop 1239Retail - Departmental Store 9 Retail - Foreign Liquor Off Shop 960Retail - Foreign Liquor On Shop 545 Retail - Hotel graded 3-star or

4-star 17

Retail - Hotel graded 5-star or above

9 Retail - Hotel-cum-bar 11

Retail - Hotel-Rstrnt-Bar below 3-star

201 Retail – Military canteen 108

Retail - Pachwai Off & On Shop 764 Retail - Restaurant-cum-Bar 704Retail - Temporary FL On License

134 Retail - Tourist Lodge 18

Retail - Tourist Lodge-FL On 3 Retail - Others 58Total Licensees 5969

Stakeholders

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DETAILS OF COVERGAGE OF TARGETED POPULATION

State Level: Officials of the Excise Department located in the State Secretariat, Excise Directorate, District level, Range/Zone level, and Circle level and also those officials posted in the Excise Licensed Premises like Distilleries, Manufactories etc. Besides, the State Level Stakeholders of e-Abgari comprises of the Finance Department, Directorate of Commercial Taxes, L & LR Department, Transport Department, IT Department, Excise Department of Other States, Police Department as NOC issuing authority, Municipalities / Municipal Corporations / Gram Panchayats, Income Tax department, AG of WB, Public Sector Banks & RBI etc. Apart from the above mentioned primary stakeholders, there are facilitators of e-Abgari project e.g. West Bengal Government Press, Administrative Training Institute (ATI), NIC, WEBEL etc.

Business Level: Around 6000 Excise Licensees of Distilleries, Manufactory Bonds, Trades, Retail outlets including all Off & On Shops/Hotels located in the state of West Bengal. Besides e-Abgari is related with the Distilleries, Bottlers & Brand Owners located in other States and even those located outside the country producing Overseas Foreign Liquors. Besides, the Business Level Stakeholders of e-Abgari comprises of the different Banks (GRIPS Payment Gateway), Wipro & Reliance (providing MPLS), BSNL (providing the Broadband Connectivity).

Individual Level: Common Citizen applying for Excise Licenses or, in search of information pertaining to the prices, availability of packaged liquor etc.

All the stakeholders connect to e-Abgari through State owned MPLS, Leased Line, Broadband Connectivity etc. to do the followings:-

Excise Licensees to put application online for Grant of License for the next period of settlement

Excise Licensees to put Requisition online for Registration of Labels of Packaged Liquors

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Excise Licensees to put Issuance of Permits/Passes for Movement of Molasses, Country Spirit, Foreign Liquor and other excisable commodities within & outside the state

Competent Authorities of the Excise Directorate to act on the Requisitions / Applications to issue Permits / Licenses

Competent Authorities to work online to impose, regulate effective implementation of Excise Acts & Rules relating with Administration, Revenue Collection

Consumers to hook to e-Abgari online for queries relating to the availability of brands registered and other relevant information pertaining to Excise Acts and Rules

Presently, West Bengal State Excise Department Officials at all levels i.e. from Directorate, District, Range to Circle level Offices have adopted the new processes and e-Abgri application systems. Employees representing all levels were involved since the beginning of the project, for gathering of data, design, testing & implementation.

Licensees are being offered e-services for performing key activities like e-Payment, e-Submission of Requisition/Application for Permits/Passes/Grant of License for the next period of settlement, e-Returns submission etc. This has made the process of compliance convenient and transparent for the licensees as well as for the Excise Officers.

Besides, with the Business Intelligence (BI) system available in e-Abgari, the Licensees are being facilitated with information regarding demand of packaged liquor brands in advance based on the statistical analysis of previous year’s data.

Citizens are provided with services like online grievance redressal system besides Acts, Rules and Circulars of the Department for informed decision making. They also can access legally available brand names and Maximum Retail Prices at which they are to be sold in the market.

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Pre-deployment scenario

In the traditional system, the processes for applying for permits/passes/label registration/chemical analysis of excise samples were cumbersome and time consuming.

The manual systems in place were not user friendly and often led to unwarranted delays.

This also rendered it difficult for the higher authorities to keep track of movement of applications in the official chain up to the final authority

There were instances of fake permits/passes and fake treasury challans showing deposit of excise duties/fees.

Maintaining database of service related matters was not up to the mark and often caused delay in passing on benefit to the service holders.

It was difficult for the excise administration to procure, collate and analyse data from the manually maintained records.

Post-deployment Benefits

24x7 Service time Window for licensees - no more bank/government office time constraints for submissions of application, requisition, payment of excise duties/fees

Reduced Cost of Compliance for excise licensees – time and cost - no more standing in queues, any time submission, no more stack of papers, no more multiple copies of returns

Locational independence for compliance - just a click away, through internet access anywhere - services adding to transparency and reduced person dependency

e-Abgari portal works as a mentor for licensees/applicants for licenses - what, how, when - user friendly guide for licensees and citizens regarding all aspects of West Bengal State Excise

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COMPARISON OF THE PRE-DEPLOYMENT SCENARIO AND POST-DEPLOYMENT BENEFITS: EXPLAIN HOW SOLUTION HAS HELPED

Availability of Information - copy of latest act, rules, notifications are available instantly on portal, copy of notices and acknowledgement sent to licensees to their e-Abgari inbox

Tracking of service delivery of department - licensee can track the status of his application/requisition from portal which results in reduction in visits, time & cost

Quick Service towards RTI and to stakeholders - with availability of all information in a single, central system, excise authorities can render quick services to all concerned

Reduced cost of collection for each rupee of Excise Revenue generated - less time to reconcile, reduced follow-ups, prompt collections

Real-time supervision & monitoring of work done at different levels in all excise offices by the Excise Commissioner - availability of real-time work task information at all levels of hierarchy – completed, pending, ageing, etc.

Real time complete data - latest positions of revenue collection, generation and availability of uniform and accurate data

Sharing licensee ledger with licensee - improved transparency, self-verification by licensee about stock inventory, duties/fees, returns, etc.

Policy making and decision making - MIS, detailed analysis, slicing-dicing available which assists the department in reviewing policies and decisions

Ensuring licensee's satisfaction – maximizing impact - electronic services available on 24 x 7 basis, dedicated cell available for quick redressal of queries / problems / requests, application tracking system available for online requests – reduces phone calls / visits required to excise offices

Exchange of Information - data available on electronic format can be exchanged between different government departments / agencies

Increase in compliance - due to availability of all information, cross checking of information, increased transparency results in increased duty/fee compliance

Reduction in time barred cases - reduction of time in scrutinizing all information, reduction of time in gathering information for statutory compliance on monthly, quarterly/half yearly/yearly basis, more time available to focus on assessment, refund and recovery

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Opportunity for process improvement - with information being available centrally and online checks available, number of manual checks going down gradually

Dynamic routing of documents that have been electronically filed or uploaded to the concerned official within e-Abgari, based on the type of service request

Reduction in costs – less time to process files based on documents, to scrutinize requisitions in details resulting in netting of more revenue, reduced consumption of stationery , reduced expenditures towards courier / postages

Electronic workflow systems to augment speed and ensure service delivery

Reduction in Activity Cost, total process cycle time & waiting time for the Licensees and thereby increasing throughput of the system besides attaining increase in revenue

Storing of all approved documents of state excise as part of electronic records, including provision of access to electronic records for the stakeholders

Increasing efficiency of scrutiny in issuance of permits/passes by system-verification on availability of adequate bond value, label registration of brands, auto-calculation of duties/fees etc.

Enhancing identification of defaulting licensees Reduction in opportunities for corrupt practices by allowing ‘any where’

and ‘any time’ access for excise licensees & members of citizens from the Internet and eliminating the human interface i.e., licensee/citizen and department interaction during grant of license or issuance of permits/passes

Online Tracking of Status of different processes viz. Grant of License, Issuances of Transport Pass, Import Permits

Providing alerts to higher authorities when the services are not rendered within the stipulated period

Enabling quicker responses to licensee/citizen grievances Online Reconciliation of Revenue, unit-wise, on real-time basis and to

get better results in terms of arresting revenue leakages Integration with State Payment Gateway GRIPS and Commercial Tax

Application of West BengalPage 23 of 41

Preservation of knowledge for state excise employees in a centralized and easily accessible repository comprising of acts, rules, circulars etc

Simplification and standardization of government processes and procedures, elimination of unproductive/ non-value-adding work, and reduction in paperwork

e-Conferencing by the Excise Commissioner with the District Officials through VC to monitor the progress of revenue collection and preventive actions

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The biggest key learning of the initiative is just a reiteration of the adage, that "where there is a will, there is a way".

Transformative Leadership exhibiting the realities of purposeful, progressive and visionary governance is a critical driver to implement changes.

“If you cannot measure it, you cannot manage it”: Evaluating the progress of the implementation of GPRs, needs constant monitoring and surveying. The major lesson learnt is that the requirements for improved service levels in basic public services necessitated a focus on methods and tools for higher efficiencies and better performance.

“Learning to hear and be heard”: The theme of communications is critical to implement GPRs and remains a key factor in overcoming challenges of implementing and sustaining the re-engineered processes. Major emphasis should be made for system acceptance at every level irrespective of the hierarchy to ensure absolute success of the project.

Shared vision & Common direction: e-Abgari has taken a collaborative approach by engaging various stakeholders (Government Departments, WEBEL, Reliance Communications, Wipro, Excise Licensees, and Citizens) in the implementation process.

Process Re-engineering Exercise: It is a good practice to estimate the network requirement in advance and to keep necessary arrangement in advance which might be required at a later stage of the project because in projects of this magnitude where coordination among various stakeholders is required, it takes longer than usual to get things in place.

A governance mechanism would help bringing all the stakeholders on the same platform and also provide clear directions and helped in speedy implementation.

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KEY LEARNING FROM THE PROJECT

Handholding support has proved to be an essential part of the project and has helped in rapid implementation of the project and also useful for repetitive user training throughout the project.

The key lessons learned from Process Re-engineering exercise are as follows:-

Service workflows as well as output formats to be standardized. All process with scenarios to be freezed at the time of

implementation. Input forms and output should be well captured at the time of

study. Process steps to be reduced wherever possible. Changed workflow and process to be adopted by all officials.

Technology Choices & Implementation Strategy: Successfully deploying information technology requires executive-level support, a structured decision-making process, and a strategy based on an understanding of vision and its enterprise architecture.

Since the initiation of this e-Abgari project, several learning has emerged out of this project.

The key ones are: Citizen centricity is the success key for any e-governance project. Understanding the ground realities and practical difficulties

towards implementation of the project at the grassroots is the basic challenge. So, every step of process re-engineering and addition of a new service to the service basket of e-Abgari is a learning process in itself.

Maintaining a strong and cohesive relationship with all stakeholders is a necessity for successful roll out of the project.

Sensitisation and awareness about the scheme, services being delivered and other initiatives is of paramount importance.

Structured BPR is of most importance for success of any project.Page 26 of 41

Well-defined roles and responsibilities, down to the grass roots level are essential. This is achieved through state level workshops and intensive trainings for bringing about changes in the attitude among departmental staff.

With all well-defined administrative processes, systems should have a strong data back-up mechanism. In order to protect data from physical threats like fire or calamities, backing up of data was done by way of online replication and hosting it at National Data Centre, New Delhi with Disaster Recovery facility.

Procurement of costly ICT infrastructure is a not a pre-requisite for e-governance initiatives

If benefits to citizens are real and substantial, projects become sustainable.

Change Management & Capacity Building: Key lessons learnt in e-Abgari from the processes of Change Management & Capacity Building are:-

Change is inevitable and government servants can be persuaded to usher in change by convincing them that change is in their interests.

Culture of service delivery can be brought about without enforcing penal mechanism.

Change in attitude is more important than procurement of infrastructure etc.

Technology can be a great enabler and force multiplier. Leadership support is indispensible for providing direction for any

initiative. Strategy for change management and capacity building should be

prepared in detail before launching any change management program.

Simpler processes, which makes the execution easy for involved users.

Gradual implementation with close interaction with all levels of users.

Flexible system which should have the capability of adaptation (to a possible extent).

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Assemble the right team of experts. Create strong (and integrated) working relationships. Assign dedicated project management, change management and

communications resources. Start planning early and continually integrates all efforts. Avoid calling everything a priority at all times, as staff needs clear

priorities when caught in the daily demands of heavy workloads. Inclusion of basic computer training apart from application training

in the overall training plan or capacity building plan. Incentive / award programs may be arranged to motivate the

officials. Refresher courses for updating the skills required at regular

intervals. Interactive and online training programs for regular skill up-

gradation and interest generation. Training to be imparted in local language also for better learning by

field officials.

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The best way to explain the cost effectiveness of e-Abgari project is mapping the impact on both time and cost efficiency derived from it.

Temporal efficiency and impact:

e-Abgari has proved to be of high impact, in terms of monitoring and control of service delivery to beneficiaries within time limit and achieving the envisioned goals of the statutes.

With built-in intelligence for verification, total time period for processing each application/requisition has reduced time for verification / reconciliation.

Reporting audit for tracking application actions is available as a feature to reduce the service delivery time and improve beneficiary satisfaction and trust in government functioning.

Reduction in repetitive official file work Reduction in travel time, elapsed time for service, delivery, multiple

visits to offices for the stakeholders as well as officials. Time to time SMS and onscreen alerts for the service to be rendered

ensures on time disposal Information flows over a telephone / mobile network which has a much

larger penetration and real-time quick access. Improved and quick record maintenance ensures accuracy, consistency,

security and disaster recovery. Enhanced basket of services (number of new services added within this

financial year) has added to timely delivery, its efficiency and resultant impact.

Informed and process driven budgeting and planning exercise Tightened security and control mechanism resulted in reduction in

cases of evasion and increase in collection of revenue

Financial efficiency and impact:

Reduction in paper cost at all levels.

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NOTE ON THE COST EFFECTIVENESS OF THE PROJECT

De-duplication leads to cost reduction as ineligible applicants are weeded out automatically

Enhanced revenue/benefits to government. Reduction in repetitive official file work. Reduction in travel costs, costs of multiple visits to offices for

beneficiaries as well as officials. Reduction in cost and time in keeping official documents/papers in

terms of space saving due to digitization of data. SMS based system reducing the use of paper for sending letters Use of common ICT Infrastructure and Systems available at State &

National level through West Bengal State IT Department & NIC reducing project costs. No cost for hosting e-Abgari at National Data Centre – all infrastructure

are provided free of cost to Excise Department, Government of West Bengal

No cost from Excise Licensees. They only need computer with internet facility to access e-

Abgari.

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The unparalleled success of e-Abgari in recent past has made West Bengal Government enthusiastic in formulating a robust future road map for its further enrichment. Through transactions on the portal, the initiative is on the path of turning itself into a self-sustainable project. Integration with GRIPS for e-payment of duties & taxes and Commercial Tax directorate portal for real-time data exchange on Way Bill issuance has made this innovative time-bound service delivery and monitoring mechanism sustainable, financially and operationally. The portal has achieved strong cost effective mechanisms and has proved to be a very useful instrument in enhancing the efficiency of the system, hence ensuring its sustainability.

Now, the Excise Department, Government of West Bengal has taken initiatives for further development so as to provide better e-services through e-Abgari.

1. Rolling out 2D Barcode based Packaged Liquor Supply Chain Management System

After successful implementation of 1D Barcode based Permits/Passes throughout the state, it is now possible to identify and seize any fake passes used to transport, import or export of Bulk Spirit/Packaged Liquor in the state. The Department is now ready to roll out 2D Barcode based supply chain management system for packaged liquor.

Provisions are already available in e-Abgari to carry the following data in each of the 2D barcodes for tracking the flow of the corresponding bottled liquors:-

Label Registration Id. No. Brand name Name of the Brand Owner with Address Name of the Manufacturer with Address, in case Brand

Owner is not Manufacturer Measure in Milliliters Name & Strength of Liquor Date of manufacture with Batch No. Primary & Secondary Legends MRP

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FUTURE ROAD MAP OF THE PROJECT

This will enable the Government in easily identifying counterfeit branded bottles or bottled liquor on which excise duties and/or fees have not been paid. It is proposed that these 2D Barcodes will be printed on Labels with Holograms to be supplied by the West Bengal Government Press for using by the Packaged Liquor Manufacturers & Importers throughout the state.

As per Road Map, this software module of e-Abgari will be rolled out throughout the State within 2014-15.

2. Rolling out implementation of Mobile Apps so as to aid Packaged Liquor Inventory at retail establishments in rural areas

With e-Abgari, the receipt of consignments through execution of Transport Passes is successfully being implemented throughout West Bengal as consignments of Packaged Liquor coming from Warehouses are being entered through a single-click of mouse. But, it is observed that Retail Outlets of Packaged Liquors, specifically those which are located at rural areas, suffer from interrupted power supply and intermittent internet connectivity. This in turn hampers the process of maintaining stock inventory system in e-Abgari during peak sales time.

Keeping this in mind, requisite software module (a Mobile App) is already developed in e-Abgari to facilitate such Licensees to record their day-to-day sale transactions with the aid of smart mobile device. This Mobile App can be downloaded by the Retailer from State Excise Portal. Now, whenever sale of packaged liquor is to be done, the Retailer needs simply to scan the 2D Barcode of the package and the details of the package will be captured and stored in the SD memory card of the mobile device.

A Web Service associated with the Mobile App will instantly establish connection with online e-Abgari to push the sales data to update the stock inventory. In case, there is no Mobile Network, it will store the data in the SD Memory Card and flush it to e-Abgari as soon as Mobile Network connectivity is restored.

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As per Road Map, this Mobile App of e-Abgari is expected to be rolled out throughout the State within 2014-15.

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ANNEXURE: State Excise Portal - https://wbexcise.gov.in

1. e-Abgari is integrated with West Bengal Government Payment Gateway GRIPS

2. e-Abgari is integrated with NIC SMS Gateway to Push Alerts as SMS

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ANNEXURE: Integration of e-Abgari with Other e-Governance Projects

3. e-Abgari is integrated with NIC SMS Gateway for Pulling Process-Status-Information as SMS

4. e-Abgari is integrated with State Commercial Tax Portal for real time Pulling of Way Bill data

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ANNEXURE: Stock Inventory in e-Abgari at (i) Manufactory and (ii) Warehouse

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ANNEXURE: Generation of 2D Barcode Labels at Manufactory in e-Abgari

Button to generate 2D Barcode

e-Abgari is developed & deployed as per guidelines for Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP). It is made live only after getting Cyber Security Clearance Certificate from STQC followed by CSD, NIC(Hqrs.).

Following Cyber Security measures are taken in e-Abgari:-

e-Abgari is hosted at National Data Centre (NDC), New Delhi which provides state-of-the art internet security and physical security, high availability, scalability, reliability & accessibility and high degree of network security. It has disaster recovery facility.

Excise Department has set up an access control list, which allows e-Abgari administrator to control which employee has access to the system or certain parts of the system.

User credentials are sent to the users through SMS at his/her registered mobile number. Users can not proceed to work with the system unless he/she changes the system generated password. Besides, e-Abgari follows password policy as prescribed by NIC Cyber Security Division.

Excise Department has established definite security roles and responsibilities to identify which employee needs to have access or modification rights to the business information and set up responsibilities for those employees.

It is ensured by Excise Department to use Internet security programs (antivirus software) on each computer. The programs work in addition to the firewall to help block malicious software from attacking the computer and compromising data. Scheduled updating of antivirus software is mandatory.

Regular training programs for user awareness on cyber risks are conducted by the Training Division of Excise Directorate.

Secured Socket Layer (SSL) is incorporated in e-Abgari. Since the application contains authenticated module and pages for public view, all the authenticated links including the login page are kept under a single folder on which SSL is given.

Both Client side and server side validation are implemented. Encoded all HTML Output.

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ANNEXURE: Cyber Security Measures in e-Abgari

Encoded all URL Output. e-Abgari is configured to never give out specific errors. It only shows a

customized error message. This message is shown when an error occurs. Detailed error handling is disabled or limited. In particular, care is taken

not to display debug information to end users, stack traces, or path information.

Follows a secure session management lifecycle which includes proper generation, maintenance and expiration of session tokens.

Ensures that every page has a logout link. Logout destroys all server side session state and client side cookies.

Used SSL for encrypting all traffic from and to e-Abgari. The password is encrypted using salted hashing while sending data from

client to server for authentication. Password history is also maintained in order not to use the same password

again and again. Performed a penetration test prior to deployment or code delivery to

ensure that the application could not be misused by a motivated skilled attacker.

Paid close attention to not to include 3rd party library files, especially if they have an executable extension.

Ensures that administrative and high privilege actions are protected. Passwords and other important credentials are not to be stored in clear

text, strong hashing algorithm is used before storing them in database. Passwords are not displayed in user interface. Ensured the access control matrix is part of the business, architecture, and

design of the application. Ensures that all URLs and business functions are protected by an effective

access control mechanism that verifies the user’s role and entitlements prior to any processing taking place. It is also made sure that this is done during every step of the way, not just once towards the beginning of any multi-step process.

As per Cyber Security Certificates received from STQC & CSD, NIC(Hqrs.), e-Abgari is declared free from Cyber Security Vulnerabilities e.g. Cross Site Scripting (XSS), Injection Flaws, Malicious File Execution, Insecure Direct Object Reference, Cross Site Request Forgery, Information Leakage and Improper Error Handling, Broken Authentication and Session Management,

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Insecure Cryptographic Storage, Insecure Communications, Failure to Restrict URL Access, Buffer Overflows, Denial of Service.

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