Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra on Tuesday launched the unified portal of the Central Bureau of Narcotics (CBN), which will instil efficiency and transparency and reduce the time taken by the pharma industry to get a trade licence.

“The unified portal of Central Bureau of Narcotics will instil efficiency, transparency and accountability in department users with a twin objective to cater for the need of pharma and chemical industry for synergistic growth of the drugs & pharma sector and boosting economy for “Aatma Nirbhar Bharat" and ensure availability of the “essential narcotic drugs" and medicines to the patients & their attendant families," the Ministry of Finance said in a statement.

The launch of the unified portal of the Central Bureau of Narcotics will prove as a stepping stone for the ease of doing business for narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances (NDPS) and controlled substances in the country with transparent and better compliance.

The portal has been calibrated to have database integration and ingestion with other government services including Bharat Kosh, GST, PAN- NSDL validation, e-Sanchit, and UIDAI facilitating single point services for obtaining the licenses from CBN.

Exporters, importers, and manufacturers of NDPS, and controlled substances are expected to benefit from an ecosystem which supports and harbours user-friendly, secure transactions, cloud-based storage, simplified process for applicants to obtain various licences.

Applicants may file applications from anywhere and anytime 24X7 basis eliminating the need for physical interaction and can raise queries with the department which shall be responded to through the portal.

"This will leverage drastic reduction in ‘processing-time’ and conserving the resources of the trade for other fruitful business activities," the ministry added.

Image courtesy: PIB