Odisha Excise Dept bags Digital India Gold Award from President Murmu

New-Delhi: The President of India Droupadi Murmu has conferred the prestigious Digital India Gold Award to Excise Department for digital initiatives for ease of doing business through e-Abkari.

The award was presented at the Bigyan Bhawan in New Delhi on Saturday.

Former Principal Secretary of Excise Department, Sushil Kumar Lohani, and Odisha Excise Commissioner Ashish Singh received the award.

Excise Department’s Additional Secretary Biplav Pradhan, Additional Commissioner Ram Chandra Palta, and NIC Bhubaneswar’s Sr. Director Nihar Ranjan Biswal were also present at the event.

Digital India Awards are instituted under the aegis of National Portal of India (https://india.gov.in), which provides single-window access to information & services being offered by Indian government entities at all levels.

eAbkari received the award under the Digital Initiatives for Ease of Doing Business. It honours digital initiatives creating significant impact by reducing the time, costs, and efforts in setting up, conducting, and operating business activities.

In line with the 5T principle of the Odisha government, the Excise department has implemented around 40 online modules from 2019-20 with the help of the National Informatics Centre (NIC) to provide transparent, seamless and timely services eliminating physical touch points, reducing discretion and providing faceless service at door steps.

It has been providing assistance in the proper monitoring and enforcement of illegal activities, provisioning of timely services at various levels, and regulating the production and supply of liquor.

It is pertinent to mention that 45,541 Excise/NDPS cases have been detected in 2022 till the month of December against 29,038 cases detected up to December 2021 showing an increase of 56%.

A record number of 1310 cases under NDPS Act were detected till December 2022 against 575 till December 2021 showing an increase of 127%.

Similarly, this year till December 6197.54 Crores have been collected including VAT against that of 5023.92 Crores last year with an increase of 23%.

The Department has done a lot of efforts to implement 5T initiatives of State Government to transform the Department in all aspects including use of technology.