The Hindu : Kerala News : `Traders reluctant to use e-filing facility'

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Friday, Nov 24, 2006
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Kerala

`Traders reluctant to use e-filing facility'

Staff Reporter

KOCHI: The number of traders who make use of electronic facility for filing tax returns in Kerala is too small in comparison to other States, K.S. Nair, Chief Commissioner, Central Excise and Customs, ha said.

Speaking at an interactive session organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry here on Wednesday, he said that though the Government introduced customer-friendly measures to facilitate better service, utilisation of them was up to expected levels.

While the e-filing facility was being utilised by more than 70 per cent of traders in Bangalore and about 60 per cent in Chennai, it was below one per cent in Kerala, he said. The Government was taking several pro-active steps such as cut in tariff and elimination of lengthy procedures. Green channels were being established to encourage tax compliance.

A separate unit would be established in metro cities to deal with large tax-paying entities. Such a unit was already functioning in Bangalore and the results were encouraging, he said.

Vinod Kumar, Commissioner of Central Excise and Service Tax, said it would be mandatory to resort to e-filing in the case of those tax payers who had remitted more than Rs.50 lakh as tax in the previous year. About 100 services were under service tax net and more services would be added to the list.

D.D. Ingty, Commissioner, Customs, Kochi, said changes would be necessary for better and faster operation. Vijay Narayan Govind, convener, Finance and Taxation panel of CII Kerala State Council, introduced the guests.

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