Unified Portal of Central Bureau of Narcotics Launched

· Portal to be the one step solution for all licensing processes of the Bureau

The Unified Portal of the Central Bureau of Narcotics was launched on 11 April, 2023 by the Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra in the presence of the Additional Secretary (Revenue) Vivek Aggarwal, Narcotics Commissioner Dinesh Kumar Bouddh, and other officers Anil Ramteke, Chief Controller of Factories, Vinod Kumar, Director (NC) and representative stakeholders from the pharma industries.

The Central Bureau of Narcotics has taken measures to strengthen the vision of Digital India in the period of ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’ by developing and unleashing the unified portal as one step solution for user industry to facilitate the licensing and ExIM authorizations issued by the Bureau.

The unified portal of Central Bureau of Narcotics will instill the efficiency, transparency and accountability in department users with twin objective to cater 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 launch of Unified portal of Central Bureau of Narcotics will prove as a stepping stone in ease of doing business of NDPS and Controlled substances in the country with transparent and better compliance. This portal is calibrated to have database integration & 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. The exporter, importer, and manufacturer of Narcotic Drugs, Psychotropic Substances, and Controlled Substances are expected to be benefitted in a manner and ecosystem which supports and harbours user-friendly, secure transactions, cloud-based storage, simplified process for applicants to obtain various licenses such as Import Certificates, Export Authorizations, No Objection Certificate for various NDPS and controlled substances, manufacturing licenses, Quota Allocation of Narcotic Drugs in a smooth, hassle-free and transparent operations. It is imperative to note that all the operations are envisaged to be faceless & contactless. The applicants may file applications from anywhere & anytime 24*7 basis eliminating the need of physical interaction and can raise queries with the department which shall be responded through portal. This will leverage drastic reduction in ‘processing-time’ and conserving the resources of the trade for other fruitful business activities.

Central Bureau of Narcotics is a central government organization dealing with the international trade of Narcotic Drugs, Psychotropic Substances, and Precursor Chemicals under the ambit of various United Nations Conventions and the provisions of NDPS Act, 1985. These substances bear dual potential as strong medicinal, scientific, and industrial use as well as a diversion for illicit use creating the substances for abuse. Therefore, there is a need for striking a fine balance between the availability of these substances to the people and maintaining compliance with the law in this regard. These challenges envisioned the Bureau to conceptualize the use of a Digital platform as an effective tool to synergize and sustain balance between facilitation and compliance management.