INTRODUCTION TO E-GOVERNANCE AND E-GOVERNMENT

MODELS OF E-GOVERNANCE

SECURITY FOR E-GOVERNMENT

E-GOVERNMENT INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPEMENT

APPLICATION OF DATA WAREHOUSE AND DATA MINING IN E GOVERNANCE

CASE STUDY

E-GOVERNANCE PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION

CASE STUDY - E GOVERNANCE IN NEPAL

E-GOVERNANCE OLD QUESTION BANK

DGFT

DGFT- E GOVERNANCE CASE STUDY (BSCCSIT/BCA/ MASTER)

Introduction

The era of digital economy is evolving with e-governance being introduced into all economic and trade related departments of the Central Government in India. In this direction the Office of Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) * under the Ministry of Commerce is a key player in promotion of Foreign Trade in India.      

In the recent efforts to modernize and speed up the processes in the Offices of DGFT located throughout the country, especially its port offices, computerization was introduced with the help of National Informatics Centre (NIC). This ushered e-governance, including digit5al signatures, in DGFT offices throughout the country. 

The EXIM Policy (The Export-Import Policy) of Government of India outlined the goal of computerization processes as to reduce the physical interface and bring in transparency in various activities related to exports, electronic data interchange (EDI), and ensure clearance of electronically received application within 24 hours.

Role of DGFT in implementation of Exim policy  

The Government of India may appoint any person as Direction General of Foreign Trade for the purpose of Foreign Trade development and Regulation (FTDR) 1992 Act. The Director General shall advise the Central Government in the formulation of the export and import policy and shall be responsible for carrying out that policy. 

The principal objectives will be met with the coordinated efforts of the state governments and all the departments of the Government of India in general and the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and directorate General of Foreign Trade and its network of Regional Offices in particular, with a shared vision and commitment and in the best spirit of facilitation, in the interest of promotion of trade in goods and services.

The Office of the Director General of Foreign Trade, a Central Government Department is located at New Delhi. It has four Zonal Joint Directorate General of Foreign Trade (ZIDGFT) officers in Delhi (North/CLA), Mumbai (Eastern), Kolkata (Western) and Chennai (Southern), and other 28 port officers across the country.

To know the details of DGFT functions, various licensing schemes, etc., please refer to Annexure I at the end of the chapter.

Pre-computerizations scenario: Manual Application Processing Procedure

Normally an exporter should process and Importer Exporter Code (IEC) in order to avail the benefits/exemptions under various licensing schemes, unless specifically exempted. Allotment of fresh IEC numbers, change in the details of the firms are normally done by local offices on submission of application with necessary documents. After obtaining the IEC Number, the exporter can avail any of the benefits of existing licensing schemes mentioning the IEC details. 

Once the application is submitted, Receipts and Issues Counter, after scrutiny, allots a file number and issues and acknowledgement to exporter and the application is forwarded to the concerned section. The application is further processed by the concerned section. The application is further processed by the concerned section which prepares a draft note and sends it to the concerned officer. Depending on the decision of the concerned officer, a rejection letter/licence/deficiency letter is prepared and passed on to R and I section which in turn sends the document to the exporter either by post or by hand.

In the process, the application may fall into one of the categories and may be referred to one of the section. In some situations, for example, an exporter obtained IEC in one DGFT port office and having branch office in another port office and the exporter files application in the port where branch office located. The local port office has to get the IEC details from port office where IEC was obtained, and after verification grants the licences for which exporter has applied for. The number of times each life moves between the local officers, the processing time of application and the number of file each dealing assistant has to handle, type-written licences, hand written draft notes to be put up on the file to the concerned officer, manually appending the remarks of the officer, etc, – all this caused enormous delays in processing the application, any giving the licence to the exporter. An exporter has to visit DGFT office many times to file application, to known the status of his application and finally to get the licence. At Customs Department end, they cannot given clearance to import or export the goods if they do not have IEC. Depending on the category of exporter his application has to be processed locally or at zonal office or it has to the referred back to DGFT.

Moreover, to complete the information required by DGFT/RBIO/Audit Party/Customs and locating the required information from thousands of file (Since inception of the department) is very much time consuming and laborious for DGFT office staff. Mode of transmission of data is through telephone, telegram or through post 

If we consolidate the above, the sequence of activities which were manually performed were as follows: 

Step 1 : Allotment of file number

Step 2 : Giving written acknowledgement to the exporter 

Step 3 : In-ward/out ward register

Step 4 : Putting up draft-note

Step 5 : Appending remarks by officer

Step 6 : Referring earlier files for any clarification

Step 7 : preparing rejection letter/deficiency letter

Step 8 : Preparation of draft licence

Step 9 : Preparation of final licence

Step 10 : Obtaining information from other ports (Whenever required)

Step 11 : Compiling fee collected (Daily/Monthly/Annually)

Step 12 : Compiling reports required by various agencies and the list goes on. 

The manual system was not exporter friendly in terms of time delays caused. Staff of the DGFT offices were on their toes to verify the details of application for correctness and were deeply involved in the decision making process.

Details of Computerization in DGFTs

The National Information Centre (NIC) under the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Government of India, was given the task of computerization in DGFT offices during 1990s, in order to have a reliable Information System to Cater to the needs of DGFT, customs and related departments and to be more closer to the Trade Community by way of providing the services at greater pace. 

Objectives of Computerization 

The objective of computerization were to:

  • Reduce physical interface-(through Electronic Transactions) 
  • Monitor and control-both online 
  • Reduce paper work
  • Increase the speed of transactions and to make them transparent while keeping them secure.
  • Develop integrated database to help the decision makes.
  • Assist in policy making and evaluation.
  • Extend quick and transparent services to exporter under various schemes include in the EXIM Policy
  • Assist exporter to reduce transaction time and costs and eliminate intermediaries. 
  • Strive to provide value added services to exporters through information, guidance and hand holding
  • Leverage information and communication technology, in-house expertise and coordination with other agencies to achieve the above objectives. 

These objectives were sought to be achieved by:

  • Internal computerization of organization unit (LAN)
  • Setting up connectivity between offices of DGFT (WAN)
  • Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) with Trad and Industry, and other government agencies like customs, bank etc.
  • Paperless operations.

The following benefits were expected for exporters:

  • Single format for licence application  
  • Instant status of application
  • Electronic filing of applications will reduce the visits to DGFT office 
  • Single web site for all export related information.

The following benefits were expected for DGFT:

  • Monitoring of each receipt including licence applications will ensure adherence to time limits.
  • Automatic Data Integration for Management information System and EXIM Bulletin.
  • Export Obligation Monitoring Automatic Generation of Lists
  • Reduction in paper work
  • Faster communication between offices and with the outside world
  • Easier detection of potential frauds/misuse of licence.   

Computerization-First Phase

During the first phase of computerization, comprehensive software package was developed to computerize the Receipts and Issues Counter, Importer Exporter Code Section, Advance Licensing, Export Promotion Capital Goods Scheme (EPCGS). Duty Exemption Pass Book (DePB) and Special Import Licensee (SIL). 

Initially, a Pentium system with Unix Operating system, with sufficient number of printer and dump terminals were installed in all Regional/Joint Directorate General of Foreign Trade Offices, Unix/Unity RDBMS was provided. Later Oracle 7.3 was also provided.

Implementation of first phase computerization and thereafter providing Internet facility at all the DGFT ports of the country, resulted in usage of computer generated draft notes, issuance of computerized licences and post-licence monitoring. Due to presence of NICNET connectivity, e-mail facility and internet browsing, communication/information exchange among DGFT offices across the country became easier and much faster. 

Over a period of time the large of licensing details was used for statistical analysis and framing/amending the policy.

As outlined in the EXIM Policy to speed up the transactions, reduce physical interface and to bring about transparency in various activities related to exports, to promote electronic data interchange and to clear applications received electronically within 24 hours, NIC and DGFT has come out with an appropriate computerization Plain.

Computerization-Second Phase

With the successful implementation of phase–1 computerization a web enabled LEMIS (Licensing, e-Commerce, Monitoring, Information System) Using Windows NT 4.0/DB2 UDB 5.0 JDK 1.15/was implemented, NIC has established local Area Network (LAN), installed powerful database servers, sufficient number of clients and ink jet/laser printers, UPSs in all port offices. Through RF-Link/VSNL links it has wired all DGFTs offices into a Nationwide Network.

LEMIS (Licensing, e-Commerce, Monitoring Information System) is a web-enabled integrated software package for the office of the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), intended to meet the diverse needs of DGFT organization, such as electronic commerce, processing and monitoring of licensing schemes at the national level.

The system was developed in object oriented programming (OOP) language using IBM"s DB2 as back-end database under Window NT operating environment. The project team set the following objectives while designing LEMIS:

  • Integration of all schemes and to eliminate redundant information 
  • Easy to use and understand GUI (Graphical User Interface) based interface 
  • Zero maintenance (maintenance free) solution for user workstations (client) and near zero maintenance (minimal maintenance) at server level.
  • Single point entry for all schemes (systems) and easy navigation from one scheme to other 9with valid access permissions only)  

The project team has collected the exhaustive list of user requirements of DGFT organizations as well as Trade and Industry the changes desired in the existing system, then translated these requirements into high level data model document.

Once a high-level data model was designed, the team emphasized on developing common code, i.e. class libraries/functions in order to take full advantage of code re-usability, a major OOP feature. To maintain the uniformity of the system, all the modules have the same appearance and use.  

Post Computerization Scenario 

Improving administrative efficiency/service of trade by adopting IT in day-to-day functioning, is one of the objectives of computerization. It can be done by the following.

1. E-filing of applications and E-commerce 

Exporters now can filer application electronically (online/offline modes). Within a day's time the application get processed in local DGFT office and licence is issued if details/documents are found correct. Only the concerned has to comer to DGFT with necessary document and get his/her licence. Now DGPT is digital signature enabled; exporter can access and print licence at his end, and he needs to visit the office only once, that is, for submitting the necessary documents.

Apart from e-filing facility, DGFT has integrated the facility of digital signatures and electronic payment of licence fee in the online Electronic Data Interchange Module. DGFT has entered into an MOU with the State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, IDBI Bank, HDFC Bank and UTI Bank for Electronic Fued Transfer facility.      

DGFT has tied up with safecrypt Limited for Issuance of Digital Certificate Services for filing of online application for licence by EXIM community. Safescrypt has provided "Safe Exim" Product package (which has already been integrated with LEMIS) for digitally signing and filing the online applications.

2. Electronic Approval on Licensing Authority      

LEMIS software has developed in such a way that the competent authority gets access to the application through his computer and approve the printing of licence by clicking approval bottom. Prior to this, dealing assistant has to generate office note, draft licence from computer, whereas now his efforts are recued. This also amounts for automation in DGFT offices. Rejection/Deficiency letters are generated in the computer. History of applications, like how many times it is updated/accessed any by whom are available in the database. 

3. Importer-Exporter Code (IEC) and Binary Identification Number (BIN)

Every exporter has to obtain an Importer-Exporter Code Number in order to import/export any items under various licensing schemes. For fresh IEC or for any modifications of the firm details one has to apply local DGFT office. As soon as the details are fed/modifications are done, a script (java thread program) is invoked local DGFT computer and details are sent to DGFT server through  NICNET. DGFT Server, which in turn a Bin is allocated by computer, Customer will access such IECs information through DGFT web site and permit import/export of the items/goods. On the exporter's part also, one can view the IEC application details and know whether BIN number is generated or not and accordingly they can approach Customs Department. Here DGFT is rendering service to export/trade community/Customs Department Electronically/through internet.

From 1st April, DGFT is issuing a single IEC against a single Income Tax PAN for all the category of applications. Within this procedure. an exporter having different branches across the country can use same IEC number for his/import/export activity, which was not the case earlier.

Now it is mandatory on the part of the exporter to file annual trade returns online.

4. Getting information for IECs registered other ports 

Sometimes it may be required that local DGFT office has to download IEC details registered elsewhere any other port office in the country. This situation arises if branch office/factory is located in the jurisdiction of local DGFT and has applied for a licence for a particular scheme. Through Administration module of LEMIS request of IEC details are registered in the database and once 'e-commerce' script on the local is run, the required information is download to the local server from other port database server.

5. Licensing information at the disposal of DGFT

DGFT server, on a regular basis, gets details of licence issued at various port offices in the country through NICNET for further statistical analysis and dissemination. 

Computerization also helps in providing information speedily to export community/trade. NIC-DGFT has hosted a web site on DGIFT server and renders the following service.

  • (E-filing of application for DEPB-Post, Advance Licence, DFRC, GEMREP, EPCG) through online/offline modes 
  • Online help to e-filing (online/offline) for all existing schemes
  • Viewing IEC details at exporter's end/customs end
  • To know IEC status/BIN number at Customs
  • To get a digital certificate online 
  • Online filing of annual trade returns
  • Uploading BRC data (for bank only)
  • Online help for filing applications digitally/electronically 
  • Online check for Deletion Status in case of blacklisting (If a firm in blacklisted, the details are entered on local  DGFT server, which in turn is transmitted to DGFT server at New Delhi on daily basis from all ports, in the country. Any exporter can check whether his firms is blacklisted or not, through DEL status option of DGFT web site.  
  • Information on various Exim facilitation measures, Agri_Export Zones, Certificate of Origin, Impact of Sensitive Items, Medium Terms Export Strategy, India's Trade. 
  • Export Import Data Bank, ITC (HS) Query Based information and other useful statistical reports. 
  • Details of EXIM policy 
  • EXIM procedures
  • Public notice
  • Notification 
  • Circulars
  • E-mail IDS
  • Download which include EXIM policy text, EXIM procedures, DEPB rates, Products covered under SION and IT CHS, and Appendices (Vario8us application formals).  
  • Links to web sites of other ports, Viz. Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Hyderabad. 

Web sites hosted by Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Hyderabad enabling exporters to know the status of application filed. General information's like, contact whom for what etc. Also, phone numbers and e-mail IDs are provided for the benefit of exporters so that they can mail, or contact the concerned to resolve their problem.

E-way of installing new versions of software at operational offices. The project team is providing latest versions of LEMS on http://dgftcom.nic.in.dgftdownloads.html. Local NIC officers/System Administrators of DGFT can easily download and can incorporate new changes without any difficulty. This has really reduced the cost and time of NIC projects team/implementation team, involved in travelling to different operational office to minimal. 

Conclusion

In this case study, we have provided details of the efforts being made in the office of Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) for computerization of web enabled services for citizens. These services include import/export licensing services and also information services and e-commerce services of Indian citizens involved in import/export activities. 

REF: E- GOVERNANCE BOOK BY CSR PRABHU