‘GEMS’ is Government to Business (G2B) initiative of Department of Excise, Government of Goa, aimed at achieving good governance and paperless office using ICT tools. The project was entrusted with NIC in October 2013, to develop a complete web based workflow application providing end-to-end solution to the business community, facilitating the dealers through anywhere, anytime and round the clock services. Excise is a matter mostly governed by the Central Government. In such a case, only the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages comes under the purview of State Excise Departments. In Goa, the Excise Department is headed by Commissioner and consists of Assistant Commissioners, Superintendents and Excise Inspectors (EI’s). There are 60 EI’s stationed at various Talukas, Manufacturing Units and Check Posts. In all there are 105 Manufacturing Units, 240 wholesalers, 2173 retailers and 8087 bars in Goa. The manufactures produce Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL), wine, beer, country liquor etc. These products are sold in Goa as well as exported outside Goa and also from the country. The raw materials are manufactured in Goa or imported from outside based on the product. The main function of the Excise Department is issuance of licenses for setting up liquor manufacturing units, wholesale shops, retail shops and bars. These license and liquor labels are to be renewed every year. Apart from this, the department issues NOCs/ permits for import/export of raw material and liquor. Moving with the time, the Excise Department in Goa decided to embrace technology to provide efficient and faster service to the stakeholders involved. Earlier, most of the work was done tirelessly by the staff, which was time consuming and prone to errors. In 2013, the Goa Excise Department kicked off its process of computerization by issuing printed challans to tax payers in place of handwritten challans. Printed challans was actually the first step towards making the process computerized. Later, the department also started e-payment of excise duty on the lines of e-payment of other taxes like Income Tax and Value-Added-Tax (VAT) etc. The move of issuing printed challans simplified matters for manufacturers and distributors of alcoholic beverages. It also helped the Goa Excise Department in curbing corruption as they were able to check the details of printed challans on the click of a mouse. The department also adopted a computerized system known as Sales Removal for monitoring the movement of goods. Other beneficiaries of the system are the research organizations and agencies which can access crucial information about products manufactured and sold in the state. OBJECTIVES OF GEMS yy Work flow based system to carry out all major activities of Goa Excise Department yy Issue NOC’s, Permits and Licenses yy Monitor online revenue collection yy Minimize physical interaction between business community & departmental officials yy Integration of Digital Signatures to promote Green Office yy Facilitate online payment yy Facilitate “Anywhere, Anytime Services” to the business community GEMS APPLICATION GEMS is a combination of two web based applications - the Internet based interface is for the business community, while the Intranet interface is for the departmental officials. The business community can apply online (for NOC’s, permits & licenses) along with softcopies of all the supporting documents. The EI will log into the portal, verify the supporting documents, generate the e-challan accordingly and send it back to the applicant electronically. The applicant will either pay the e-challan online, or at the bank counter and upload the e-receipt on the portal. The EI will forward the application with appropriate remarks to the concerned officer who in turn will forward it to the higher authorities with appropriate remarks. This process continues till the final grant stage. The history of each officer’s comment along with the documents uploaded can be viewed by officers to take appropriate decisions. There is no file/paper movement from one stage to other. After the grant, the system will generate the NOC, permit etc. and the authorized official will sign and issue the same. The dealers will visit the department only once to collect the NOC/permit etc. Integration with digital signatures is being done to eliminate the physical visits by the dealers. At every state the dealer is kept informed about the status of the application through SMS. In the manual system, this process used to take a minimum of 3 working days, as the entire file has to come to head office from various Excise Stations. After deploying GEMS, it takes only 1-2 hours to process the applications. For the departmental official - the dashboard display the pending applications and revenue collection. There is an option to transfer all the files pertaining to an officer to other employee in case of leave or transfer so that the services are provided uninterrupted. Android based mobile apps are being developed to facilitate the department official to view the status and circulars, and scan the GS1 barcode to verify the documents during enforcement. BENEFITS yy System generated application forms for the dealers are based on the input with GS1 barcode that eliminates need to write applications manually. GS1 barcode standards are used to identify the document type, validity, issuing authority etc. yy Dealers can scan and upload all the reference documents and department officials can view these documents digitally at any stage. This helps in quick decision making. It also eliminates completely the need to carry physical files to the department, thus saving manpower, transport, energy and paper. yy Fee calculators for calculating excise duty and auto-generation of e-Challan are available. yy Linking of permits and endorsement details avoids multiple truck entries against one permit. yy Integration with e-Challan Payment Gateway helps in easy transactions. yy Less paper means fewer trees are cut, resulting in saving the environment.