Filing that service tax or excise duty for small and medium businesses on time are about to become easier, considering the developments at the Central Board of Excise and Customs. The announcement of a new ‘E-payment service’ and ‘Automated Central Excise and Services’ was made today at the FAPCCI Bhavan, where the National Academy of Customs Excise and Narcotics and the Regional Training Institute jointly organised a two-day workshop on the topic. Inaugurating a novel approach to dealing with Central Excise, service tax and allied transactions, the new mode of payment would make dealing with service tax as convenient as shopping online.
Speaking to the Additional Director General of the National Academy of Customs Excise and Narcotics, Bhupendra Pal Singh, one is told that the new system would “ensure greater accountability and transparency in the current system of transactions.” He noted that the E-payment service would require an online bank account registered with any of the 28 nationalised banks in the network, following which the assesses would be able to generate electronic challans, check the correctness of the transactions conducted, receive an electronic acknowledgment of their transactions, among other services, practically from anywhere in the country.
“The current system also rids the transaction process of third party interventions, resulting in greater clarity in the processes involved,” Singh noted.
The Automation of Central Excise and Service Tax (ACES), a web application software would eventually replace the current mode of filing returns, approving permissions and rebates through an electronic interface. Singh informed that “the service would soon be connected with all the customs and excise offices in the country, thus saving the taxpayers’ time and cost in complying with trade provisions.” The Superintendent of Central Excise Customs and Service Tax, Arun Deshpande added, saying: “The electronic mode will especially benefit the trade industry with its convenience and optimum use of resources.”
