Central excise, service tax automation by June '09 The Indian government is planning to launch a centralised and web-based software application to provide tax assesses an electronic interface...
16-Jun-2009
New Delhi: The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) in India is planning to rollout Automation of Central Excise and Service Tax (ACES) nationally in phases by June 2009, a senior Customs and Central Excise Department said.
"The Department has rolled out a pilot for assesses of LTU, Bangaluru in December 2008 and is planning to rollout ACES in phases," Directorate of Systems, Customs and Central Excise Department Additional Director General (ADG) Debi Prasad Dash said.
ACES—a centralised and web-based software application—is designed to provide tax assesses an electronic interface with the Department and aims at reducing paper work and visits to the departmental offices by improving transparency, accountability and efficiency in indirect tax administration in India.
The rollout of ACES will help in paradigm shift in the way the CBEC conduct their regular business vis-Ã -vis the assesses.
The e-filing and e-processing of documents will now replace manual filing and handling of paper documents, thereby making it a paperless office.
This application, accessible on the web through Internet, aims to automate all major processed in central excise and service tax through a workflow-based application.
It will help assesses in online registration and amendment of registration details, electronic filing of documents such as returns, claims, permissions and intimations; request for provisional assessment, refund, export documents and additional facility of filing through the offline downloadable utility of returns.
Moreover, it will also help assesses in online tracking of the status of applications, claims and permissions; online facility to view documents like registration certificate, returns, show cause notice, order-in-original and information on credits, debits, liabilities and status of bonds.
Online information regarding issuance of show cause notices, personal hearings, facility to file reply to SCNs online, receive messages regarding adjudication orders passes by adjudicating authorities and to view the orders are also the other services the new web-based application will offer.
Besides these, the ACES will help assesses in processing of export-related documents; internal messaging system for faster communication; online authentication of PAN with income tax database; and system assisted validation of critical elements like registration number, PAN, CETSH No, notification number and rate of duty.
The existing assesses will not have to apply for fresh registration but have to register with ACES to interact with the Department electronically.
They should ensure that their contact details in the existing SACER/SAPS registration database are updated to include their valid and current e-mail IDs.
In order to facilitate use of ACES, CBEC is developing learning management software (LMS), a self-learning multi-media tutorial, user manuals and FAQs on ACES, which will be hosted on the CBEC website for easy access by the users.
A service centre is also being set up for providing service to the users through a national toll-free number
|
News, Events and Articles