All Ministries to be on E-Bill Platform [UPSC Notes]

In Feb 2023, the union government announced plans to bring all the ministries and departments on the e-Bill platform before March 2024. Know more about this topic for the IAS exam governance segment in this article. You can also download the PDF of this article at the end.

Electronic Bill (e-Bill) Processing System

Electronic Bill (e-Bill) processing system was announced in the Union Budget 2022– 23.

• The e-Bill system does away with the need to carry physical copies of the same and can be tracked and signed online.
• More than 350 departments are already under the e-Bill system.
• Moreover, leveraging on the already rolled out public financial management system (PFMS) and single nodal agency (SNA), the government is planning to save huge amounts in interest costs.

What are PFMS and SNA?

• PFMS stands for Public Financial Management System. It was previously called CPSMS (Central Plan Schemes Monitoring System). 
  • It is an online software program designed and introduced by the organization of the Controller General of Accounts (CGA). 
  • It provides an online subsidy payment network to both non-Aadhar-based bank accounts and Aadhar-based bank accounts under DBT (Direct Benefit Transfer) through the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). Many banks initiated DBT payments via the PFMS for the recipient qualifying under the policies.
• Single Nodal Agency (SNA) was a major reform started in 2021 on the manner in which funds for Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS) are released, disbursed and monitored. 
  • This revised procedure, now stipulated as the SNA model, needs each State to identify and designate an SNA for every scheme.

E-Bill System Advantages

• It will be a completely paperless and faceless as well as transparent system.
• It is expected to help ensure the timely clearance of bills and reduce the chance of corruption.
• The PFMS and SNA systems are being developed as data intelligence systems rather than simple repositories.
• This will further boost the Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) and promote the Digital India ecosystem, which aims to increase payment transparency and speed up the process.

All Ministries to be on E-Bill Platform:- Download PDF Here