The Hindu : Business : FM launches e-payment of indirect taxes

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, May 12, 2005

Business

Business

FM launches e-payment of indirect taxes

Special Correspondent

The main feature of the new facility is the flexibility in timing

LOG-IN AND PAY TAX: The Union Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, inaugurating the `e-payment of Central Excise and Service Tax' in New Delhi on Wednesday. At left is the Chairman and Managing Director of Union Bank, K. Cherian Verghese. — Photo: R. V. Moorthy

NEW DELHI: For corporates and the retail trade, the payment of excise duty and service tax is no longer a hassle. Instead of standing in long queues, they can now do so online in a jiffy.

As part of the drive to usher in e-governance, the Union Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, on Wednesday launched the system of online payment of excise duty and service tax through banks. For now, five banks, namely, Union Bank of India, ICICI Bank, IDBI, HDFC Bank and UTI Bank, have gone online.

And quick enough to utilise the new facility were the two public sector majors, Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation, with the third company being the Bharti Group in the private sector.

Asking the other public sector banks (PSBs) to be quick in providing the online payment facility, Mr Chidambaram said: "There is room for more PSBs to join. Otherwise, the business will be diverted to these banks."

The other PSBs need to pay heed, as the volume of business is quite large. For, as Mr Chidambaram noted, efforts were on to route all the 5,500 business enterprises — accounting for 90 per cent of the total excise duty collections — for payment of their dues through this modern facility.

Incidentally, the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) has developed the software for this hassle-free payment system for indirect taxes.

A similar e-payment system for corporate direct taxes is already in place.

The main feature of this online payment facility for indirect taxes is the flexibility in timing in that a customer can make payments at any time during the day.

While payments up to 8 p.m. are to be accounted for the same day, transactions after that are to be treated as the next working day's receipts.

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