Govt's flagship one-stop facility eBiz portal to shut down

Launched in 2009, a flagship eBiz portal launched by the then UPA government seems to have gone obsolete in the present day and is being wound up.

The portal was launched to offer a one-stop facility for businesses to obtain government licences and clearances as well as reduce red tape and improve transparency.

But, a lot changed in the past nine years. Different state governments built their own online systems and left little space for an old platform like eBiz to function. Besides, the portal also provided only limited services, said a Mint report.

However, the growth and fall of the platform is akin to riches to rags story.

After the National Democratic Alliance government came to power in May 2014, it supported eBiz portal tremendously, leveraging the platform to improve India’s ranking in World Bank’s Doing Business ranking.

According to the previous plan, the government was deciding to cater all business and investment-related clearances and compliances available on a 24x7 single portal. All central government departments and ministries were also planning to integrate their services with the eBiz platform.

At one point in time, the government decided to make the portal mandatory for starting a business. The plan was to include three functions of the ministry of corporate affairs—registration for PAN, TAN, registration for Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation and Employees’ State Insurance Corp on the portal. However, the services are “temporarily unavailable” on the platform.

Experts, however, feel that eBiz project is still relevant as nothing can replace a single-window facility. In their views, it is a pity to invest so much money and effort in a platform and then shut it down.

Entrackr queries to DIPP in this regard did not elicit any response till the publication of the report.