The signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the National Informatics Centre and the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC), Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance in June, 1991 set the stage for the Central Excise Computerization Project of NIC.
The Project, entrusted on a turnkey basis to NIC, involves the design, development and implementation of the Central Excise Application software package; procurement of all necessary hardware; installation of the same in all the 29 Central Excise Collectorates and over 200 Divisions throughout the Country and training of Central Excise Officers and Staff.
The application software package --- System for Excise Revenue and Monitoring (SERMON) --- was developed and tested in NIC Headquarters with the help of domain knowledge provided by officials from CBEC. SERMON has been developed on a UNIX/ORACLE platform.
Simultaneously, the delivery of hardware to 18 collectorates was effected in two phases, and completed by the end of March, 1992. Training programmes were organized in all these Collectorates spreading over a period of five months.
The Project has been implemented adhering to the strict time schedule stipulated in the MOU. The remaining 11 collectorates will also be covered by the end of December, 1992 as desired by CBEC.