Govt launches single window e-biz portal to foster business environment

The government has launched a single window e-Biz portal for 11 Central government services to bring transparency and ease of doing business in the country. Launching the portal in New Delhi yesterday, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said, the project will help in fostering the business environment in the country in a holistic manner. He also added that the government's approach includes leveraging technology to bring transparency and to improve efficiency and promote convenience.

The portal will provide four services from Ministry of Corporate Affairs, two services of Central Board of Direct Taxes, two services of Reserve Bank of India and one service each from Directorate General of Foreign Trade, Employees Provident Fund Organization and Petroleum and explosives Safety Organization. A business user can avail the service any time from today.

The newly launched services are required for starting a business in the country. These include four from the corporate affairs ministry (name availability, director identification number, certificate of incorporation and commencement of business), two from CBDT (issue of PAN and of tax deduction account number), two from RBI (advanced foreign remittance and foreign collaboration general permission route) one each from EPFO (employer registration), Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation (issue of explosive license) and DGFT (importer exporter code licence.

During the launch, Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the eBiz portal is a response to the challenge put before her ministry by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to improve ease of doing business. The Centre has also identified 10 pilot states for the implementation of these single-window services to expand this project across the country. The government is also planning to roll-out more than 200 services related to investors and businesses in next few years.