The proposal to create an Entity DigiLocker for MSMEs, large business and charitable trusts is closer to being operationalised, said the Interim Budget 2024. Entity DigiLocker is expected to help businesses store and share documents online securely, whenever needed, with various authorities, regulators, banks, and other business entities.
According to the Interim Budget 2024, development, discussions and demonstrations with National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA), Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), MCA21, Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME), Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) and Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) have taken place for the Entity DigiLocker platform.
Development of both web and app (Android & iOS) versions of Entity DigiLocker are complete. An Entity DigiLocker for Digital India Corporation has been opened as part of initial implementation and is now available for other agencies.
According to the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, the Entity Locker Service will allow company directors or MSME proprietors to create an Entity DigiLocker account. Company data verification will be done based on company information number and director information data. For MSMEs, the verification will be done based on the Udyam registry. In addition to CIN and Udyam-based registration, Entity Locker is also implementing an organisation PAN-based sign-up flow.
In Budget 2023-24, it was stated that a Common Business Identifier will be established. For the business establishments required to have a Permanent Account Number (PAN), the PAN will be used as the common identifier for all digital systems of specified government agencies. This was expected to bring ease of doing business.
The interim budget says the National Single Window system (NSWS) has upgraded its technical architecture to implement PAN as a single business ID. It has become mandatory for each entity registering on NSWS to submit its PAN.
NSWS has defined a self-declaration based mechanism to establish the identity of the user registering on NSWS, wherein PAN validation will be done through NSDL application programming interface (API) and user verification will be done using the digital signature certificate (DSC) of the authorised representative of the organisation.
PAN validation and user verification on NSWS has been implemented and made mandatory since September 7, 2023. Central government’s departments and state government agencies are required to create a mapping of the identifiers maintained by them with PAN and to integrate it with NSWS so that PAN as SBID can be implemented.
