Finance and corporate affairs minister Arun Jaitley said that to carry the business reforms for ease of doing business deeper and in every state, the government has identified 372 specific business reform actions.  “All states have taken up these reforms in a mission mode, constructively competing with each other,” Jaitley said in his budget speech on Thursday. The government will evaluate the performance under this programme based on user feedback.

He announced that the department of commerce will be developing a national logistics portal as a single window online market place to link all stakeholders.

The portal is part of the work being carried out by the logistics division under commerce department to create an IT backbone to bring together the various stakeholders viz logistics service providers, buyers as well as central and state government agencies such as customs, DGFT, railways, ports, airports, inland waterways, coastal shipping etc., on a single platform.  

Jaitley stated that the government is transforming method of disposal of its business by introduction of e-office and other e-governance initiatives in central ministries and departments.

A web-based government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS), is being administered by Controller General of Accounts, for budgeting, accounting, expenditure and cash management of the government.

The FM said that a central public procurement portal provides a single point access for all information on procurement. Around 3.5 lakh contractors and vendors are registered on this platform. “In November, 2017 alone, electronic bids for over one lakh tenders valued at around two lakh forty thousand crore were invited through this portal,” the FM said.

About government e-marketplace (GeM), he said that the platform has seventy eight thousand buyers, fifty thousand sellers, three lakh seventy five thousand products and twelve services.

Besides facilitating transaction of the value of Rs 3000 crore in about two lakh transactions, it could achieve savings of more than 25 percent over the base price.