Bills of 76,000-80,000 suppliers registered with the Railways’ online portal will be digitised with effect from March, following the Railway Ministry digitising its entire billing system.

Thus far, the suppliers had been submitting the bills manually. While it is difficult to put a number to the paper bills generated every year, they are likely to run into lakhs.

“Third party inspection certificates, receipt of material by the Railways and subsequent generation of receipt acknowledgements will now be digitally generated,” AK Goel, Director General - Stores, told BusinessLine recently on the sidelines of ‘Supplier Samvad’, an interaction with Railways suppliers. “The information can be captured by the Railways’ accounts department online. This also means that payments can also be made faster.”

“With this, the entire supply chain gets digitised. This comprises projection of demand, issuing tender documents, accepting bids, finalising contracts, inspection, delivery and receipt of the material, apart from payment to the vendors,” explained Goel. Earlier, while the Railways invited tenders and released payments online, inspections, receipts and supplier bills were generated on paper.

To ensure that bills are paid faster, it is also introducing payments by letter of credit. The Railways procures about ₹50,000 crore worth goods every year and already had an e-procurement process in place. Its online procurement accounts for almost 65 per cent of the total government procurement.

The internal management is also done digitally, with bill payment, submissions, receipts, inspection certificates being submitted and processed online.

Published on February 28, 2018