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Under its government business action plans, the State Bank of India is partnering with different departments of the central and state government in furthering their e-governance projects.

What is your vision on e-governance? How active is SBI in its e-governance business projects?
It is a good sign that the Government of India is getting more and more serious with its plans on e-governance, and is launching a vast range of citizen-centric services. e-Governance plays a vital role in creating a transparent and effective administration. SBI has been very active as a partner of public-welfare initiatives. At SBI, we are developing customized solutions to suit the e-gov needs of various departments of both the state and the central government. We are the authorized vendor for varied government financial transactions, and have tied-up with different states for the same.

We keep approaching various government departments at both central and state levels with our solutions. The state governments are pretty responsive now. We are already working with twelve states and for the rest we are in various stages of discussions.

Which key solutions does SBI have in store for e-governance?
We have a gamut of solutions that covers the core areas of e-governance initiatives of the Indian government. We act as the payment gateway for different online payment services under the e-gov projects. Some of them are Cyber Treasury services for tax collections for the state governments, SBI e-Tax for all types of direct and indirect taxes for central government; Akshaya Project of Kerala; e-freight payment facility for the railway ministry; and Jeevan project of the Government of Delhi, etc.

For CBDT (Central Board of Direct Taxes) we are the authorized payment gateway for receiving direct taxes from citizens. Now, they can pay taxes through our websites. Thereafter, they get a cyber receipt that is accepted by the government. Similar services are offered for CBSE (Central Board of Service Excise). This process is very convenient for the citizens, and the departments are now keen to create awareness in order to encourage citizens towards e-payments. Today, CBDT collects over 70% of direct taxes online. And for central excise its as high as around 90%.

The Madhya Pradesh government was the first to initiate payments of commercial taxes on the Internet three years back. Citizens just need to visit the state website to pay taxes. It has been very successful. The same model has been implemented in other states like Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Gujarat, etc. Presently, there are fourteen states using this solution of various e-tax payments. However, we have approached the state governments to follow a universal challan format for payment of all the taxes in order to simplify the process. Gujarat is the first state to initiate a single challan format and this has really helped the government as well as SBI.

What are some of the upcoming projects?
We are a partner in quite a few e-gov projects. One project that we are currently working on is the payment of examination fees for the UPSC examinations organized by the Government of India. Instead of going to post offices, the candidates can conveniently make the payments online. SBI is developing the required application and has partnered with the government to provide the payment facility to the applicants. It is in the testing stage and within a few months this facility would be ready. However, it is difficult to comment on the time frame of implementation since it is an out and out government call. We are also providing services for paying online RTI application fees. The facility will be launched soon.

Can these online facilities be availed by all citizens or only those who have SBI accounts?
Presently, the payments can be made through SBI accounts only. Therefore, the limitation is that the payee has to have an SBI account in order to make the transactions. Realizing this limitation, we have integrated our solutions and partnered with two major credit card service providersVisa and Mastercard. The process has already been integrated for the Jeevan Online project of the Delhi government that was implemented around October last year. Apart from SBI account holders, any person having Visa or Mastercard can make these transactions. With this new approach, we now cover all segments of customers, both SBI as well as non-SBI.

You have been working on e-governance projects for quite some time now. What changes do you observe as far as e-readiness is concerned, both for the government as well as the citizens?
We have been working on these projects for many years now. All of them are mission-critical and time-consuming, and are generally implemented in phases, especially since these are all for the e-government projects. Negotiation with various governments and their departments also takes time. Some departments work and respond faster, whereas in some cases its more time consuming. Therefore, the dynamics for the government business is very different and unique in its own way. However, things are changing for better now, as all the governments are more focused towards e-initiatives and delivering citizen-centric online services. The state governments are pretty responsive also.

Despite the keenness of the government, a lot depends on the available infrastructure in various states that can be a helping factor or a hindrance factor. For states that are more advanced in terms of infrastructure development or technology, its easier. Some states still dont have proper functional websites. In such cases SBI steps in and offers the government to use the SBI website interface. We host the website for them. In case the government or department has its own website, we use that and integrate the services. So both types of solutions are there.

To make the technology more adaptable, we are also trying to educate the government departments. The applications should be simpler to make them more effective and also to cut down costs and save time. Its a tough job to develop the required solution based on the given specification, but that is where we have specialized ourselves. We develop the applications in-house, and we also outsource them.

So the main point is that in order to make these projects or initiatives successful it is not only that only the government that has to adopt the technology but the citizens as well. Like it has happened in case of e-taxes. Therefore, awareness and educations plays a very critical role here. Its not enough to have the facilities, but it is equally important to encourage users to adopt them.

Piyali Guha
piyalig@cybermedia.co.in

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