Ministry of Finance, GOI’s GePG and COMPACT

The earlier processes of making payments were not completely integrated -payment and reporting systems were separate. They had complex validation requirements and multiple control points. There was multiplicity of data entry - scrolls, put through, etc. As a result, there was limited data available which could have been used for analysis. The reporting systems were rigid. Because of the decentralized information/database, the required information had to be called for from field databases. This impacted the completeness and transparency of the accounting process as a whole and also gave rise to standalone applications, complicating maintenance issues.

The Implementation

GePG is a key enabler to the successful delivery of payment services from Pay and Accounts Offices (PAOs) of the government for online payment transactions. The GePG serves as middleware between the COMPACT application at PAOs and the Core Banking Solution (CBS) of the banks that process the payments on behalf of the RBI. COMPACT is the core application at the PAOs. It automates payment and receipts systems as well as accounting processes.

The Impact

Significant benefits have been achieved with the introduction of e-payments. Primary among them are as follows:

1. Savings in time and efforts due to online fund transfers using digitally signed unique e-authorization IDs.

2. Secured mode of payment. The digital signature-based payment system is security compliant.

3. Transparency in payment procedures. It is a tool for good governance and reduction of corruption.

4. Elimination of physical cheques and their manual processing. It helps environmental protection by eliminating paper-based physical payment instruments and scrolls.

5. Elimination of constraints of manual deposit of cheque by the payee into his bank account. This reduces the beneficiary's dependency on the government and government employees to receive their dues/payments.

6. Enhancement of overall payment processing efficiency.

7. Online auto-reconciliation of payments. It improves efficiency of the payment system by facilitating faster payments, quicker receipt of scrolls and hassle-free reconciliation.

8. Efficient compilation of accounts.

9. Complete audit trail of transactions at all levels.

e-Payments through GePG touched INR 3,39,386.91 Crores as on 18-Apr-2013 with over 15,95,215 successful e-payment authorizations from 328 Pay and Accounts Offices of 50 Ministries and Departments made through 20 Public Sector and Private Sector Banks. The payment life cycle has shrunk to 3.99 days during October, 2012 from the bill preparation date to beneficiary account credit date as against the average of 20.07 days in the cheque-based mode of payments before the introduction of e-payments. SMS alerts are generated for banks when PAOs submit e-payment advices on GePG and SMS alerts to beneficiaries when credit information is uploaded by accredited banks.