NEW CENTRALISED TAX SYSTEM BY THIS YEAR-END: D P DASH
The Economic Times Business Standard
The new centralised system for processing excise and service tax which would the save tax payers time and money would be rolled out across the country by the end of this year, CBEC Additional Director General of Systems D P Dash said here.
The new system-- Automation of Central Excise and Service Tax (ACES)-- is a web-based application and has been tested through pilot projects.
"With the roll-out of ACES, the taxpayers time and cost in complying with the tax provisions will come down drastically," Dash said at a programme, which marked the rolling out of ACES in the
Making a detailed presentation on the ACES he said, "ACES aims to automate all major processes in Central Excise and Service Tax through a workflow-based application. A few modules would be implemented now and the entire project would be implemented in phases."
This system, he said, will also improve the efficiency of the Department.
Also present there Chief Commissioner of Customs, Central Excise and Service Tax (Hyderabad Zone) Ahmed Hussain said the roll out is continuation of the efforts of the Department to harness information technology to improve the taxpayer services as well as internal efficiencies.
TAPPING THIRD PARTIES FOR SERVICE TAX INFO
Deepshikha Sikarwar,
The Economic Times (
The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) is examining a proposal to put in place a third party information system to tackle service tax evasion, a move that could place an obligation on some key data sources such as the Reserve Bank of India, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, Registrar of Companies, National Highways Authority of India to provide the relevant information to the apex indirect tax body.
A finance ministry official said that the proposal had figured in the discussions at the recent annual conference of chief commissioners of excise and customs.
The board had introduced a Third Party Information System (TPIS) for excise duty last year and now wants to replicate the experiment with service tax. The idea is have an effective and non-intrusive system that can provide all relevant data without causing any hardship to taxpayers, the official said requesting anonymity.
Data from stock exchanges on brokers’ turnover, details of revenue of telecom companies from Trai, external commercial borrowing and agency commission received by banking and financial services providers from RBI, information of e-ticketing from Railways and highway toll collected by contractors from NHAI are some of the third party sources of information that are under consideration.
The TPIS, effectively used world over to check tax evasion, was first introduced by the Central Board of Direct Taxes in the form of annual information returns (AIR). AIRs are filed by mutual funds, credit card issuers, property registrars reporting transactions above the specified threshold. Purchase of property for over Rs 30 lakh, over Rs 2 lakh spend in a year through credit card or investment of over Rs 2 lakh in mutual funds have to be mandatorily reported by these third parties. This data is then matched with a taxpayer’s income tax return to detect any discrepancy in the income declared and expenditure incurred to ensure there is no evasion.
The CBEC had devised a third party information model for excise duty last year that made it mandatory for manufacturers to file a separate statement on installed capacity, details of electricity supply connection including total number of meters installed and sanctioned electricity load, permanent account number and value added tax registration number. Power consumption data has proved very useful for the Excise Department in tackling evasion.
ORISSA TO INTRODUCE E-PAYMENT FACILITY SOON
Kolkata/Bhubaneswar
Business Standard
The Orissa government is gearing up to introduce the e-payment facility for the contractors for payment of tender fee and earnest money deposit (EMD).
The new system is likely to be in operation within a month.
Though the state already has an e-procurement system in place, the payment of tender fee and EMD is being done manually in the absence of an e-payment facility.
The decision to introduce the e-payment facility was taken at a high-level meeting held recently. The meeting was chaired by the Chief Secretary of the Orissa government in the presence of the Accountant General.
“The e-payment facility would ensure hassle free payment of tender fee and EMD. The state finance department would have to amend some existing provisions of payments to the state government to facilitate the implementation of the e-payment system”, Pradipta K Mohapatra, the state IT secretary said.
“Our objective is to ensure that all departments of the state government gear up to ensure implementation of the e-payment system. The different departments have to create an electronic database of their records so that they can accept online payments”, he added.
Under the e-payment system, a unique identity number would be issued to the individuals or companies making e-payments. The banks involved in the transactions would prepare electronic scrolls to facilitate online payments.
“State Bank of
WIPRO EYES RS 700-CR GOVT BUSINESS
Moumita Bakshi Chatterjee,
The Hindu Business Line
“The targets for this year represent a 100-percent growth over the previous fiscal,” said Ranbir Singh, Head, Government, Wipro Ltd.
The export-oriented Indian IT industry has been facing headwinds in its traditional strongholds such as the US and Europe, and though things seem to be looking up, Nasscom’s annual projections have pegged software exports growth at 4-7 percent for FY10.
In contrast, the domestic market is expected to grow at 15-18 percent during the year. Projects such as MCA-21, e-passport and eBiz — which were handed out in the past — have whet the appetite of IT firms that are now looking to leverage opportunities closer home.
The Unique Identification (UID) project has created quite a stir among vendors and every IT player — Indian and MNC — is hoping to participate in the ambitious effort; the other large projects waiting to take off include eDistrict, eCourt, eOffice, Income-Tax and Central Excise.
“While the opportunity is large, it is also important to remember that the lead and the closing timelines tend to be longer for Government contracts. But, clearly, this is a space that every company wants to play in,” an industry observer pointed out.
Naturally, no one wants to be left behind in the race. Wipro’s Joint-CEO, Suresh Vaswani, told Business Line recently that the company was ‘revisiting’ its strategy and game-plan on government business.
The company has already clinched a Rs 1,200-crore multiple-year contract floated by the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC).
The project relates to computerisation of the ESIC and to provide smart cards to around 1.5 crore industrial workers across the country.
The contract brought its own share of controversies when rival firm TCS wrote to the Labour Ministry against the procedures adopted in awarding the contract.
WCD MINISTRY TO START E-TRACKING, SOCIAL AUDIT OF PROGRAMMES
The Times of
The ministry of women and child development will launch e-tracking and social auditing of its programmes to ensure transparency and accountability in its projects.
Addressing the national conference of chairpersons of central and state social welfare boards, WCD minister Krishna Tirath said that efforts should be made to address people's grievances in public welfare programmes and there was no scope for negotiation in matters related to non-compliance or failure in programmes.
Expressing concern over criticism on the functioning of the Central Social Welfare Board (CSWB), the minister said the agency should evaluate its work and complete statutory compliances. CSWB has also been asked to conduct regular social audits.
The minister has initiated programme audit, social audit of schemes, NGO profiling, analysis of the gaps in services and reconstitution of the Board.
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