On the 46th Civil Accounts Day, the Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman launched the e-Bill system for Central Government Ministries. The e-Bill system has been initially launched in nine Pay and Accounting Units of different central ministries and departments, comprising Ministry of Food Processing Industry, Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance (MoF), Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Steel, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and New and Renewable Energy. The new system will assist vendors and suppliers to present their bills claims at any time and from anywhere, eradicating the physical interface between suppliers and government officers. The government employees are required to present hard copies of their claims. At the backend additionally, the processing of bills is done via a mixed system of physical and digital modes. It needs the claimants to visit the government offices to deliver bills. For those not having a digital signature, the facility of e-sign utilising Aadhaar has additionally been rendered in the new system. At the backend also, the electronic bill received will be processed by the officials digitally at every stage and finally, the payments will be credited digitally to the bank account of the vendor. The vendor or supplier would be able to track the status of the processing of their bills online. Therefore, the new system will draw in a lot of efficiency and transparency in the system and is a big citizen-centric decision of the Government of India. The e-Bill system has been made by the Public Financial Management System (PFMS) Division in the office of the Controller General of Accounts in the Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance. In addition to encouraging ease of doing business and bringing convenience to lakhs of vendors or suppliers, the e-Bill system will be environment friendly, eradicating the requirement to present crores of paper bills annually and will, therefore, save tonnes of paper every year. The e-Bill system has a detailed digital storage facility for the retrieval of documents and a robust audit trail. Image Source Also read: Budget 2022: Nirmala Sitharaman announces budget for FY 2022-23