Par panel raises concerns over functioning of e-biz portal

A Parliamentary committee has raised concerns over functioning of the e-biz portal while observing that slippages may be on account of work done by IT firm Infosys which was given the task of developing it.

The portal provides one-stop clearance platform for investment proposals and seeks to promote ease of doing business in the country.

The committee is "surprised to note that the e-Biz portal continues to be plagued with non-cooperation of central ministries and state governments".

It "wonders" whether the way out to this grim situation is to frame a law to compel all the government agencies to cooperate for the full-fledged operation of the e-Biz portal, the Parliamentary standing committee on commerce said in its report which was tabled in Parliament today.
 

The committee also expresses its "concern" over the non- availability of IT professionals at department's end and slippages at the time of testing.

It "feels that the slippages may be accounted for by Infosys Technologies Ltd which has been given the task of developing this portal," it added.

The Committee would like the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion to take necessary action in this regard.

Further it said the committee is "extremely disappointed" with the pace of implementation of the National Manufacturing Policy (NMP).

The NMP targets enhancing the share of manufacturing in GDP to 25 per cent and creating 100 million jobs by 2022.

"However half the decade has passed by and the deliverables under the policy seem nowhere in sight," it said adding the execution of the scheme at "snail's pace" reflects serious lack of effort on the part of the department towards operationalisation of the policy.

Further it said that more than 60 per cent of FDI in 2015 -16 have come from two geographically small countries - Singapore and Mauritius.

"...These inflows need to be examined more closely to determine whether they constitute actual investments or are diversions from sources to avail tax benefits under the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement that these countries have with India," it said.