Central Excise Mission Mode Project
Automation of Central Excise and Service Tax Mission Mode Project
The Automation of Central Excise and Service Tax (ACES) is a Mission Mode Project under the National e-Governance Plan being implemented by the Central Board of Excise and Customs(CBEC). It is targeted at the 20,000 users of the CBEC in 245 cities across India [1] and seeks to automate the processes of CBEC along with providing e-services to the users both online and through facilitation centres.
Project Activities
Under this project, online filing of Central Excise tax and Service Tax has been made available along with several other Central Excise and Service Tax assesee transactions online including registration, refund claims, tracking , etc.[2] Several such services are already available at the ACES website.[3] Currently, the e-filing of Central Excise Returns (ER-1 and ER-3) and Service Tax Return (ST-3) have been made mandatory with effect from April 1, 2010. In order to explain the basics of the registration, e-filing, and other e-services, the official websites has tutorials with step-by-step instructions for assessees of Central Excise and Service Tax. Under this project, there is a plan to provide assisted access to the tax assesses through ACES Certified Facilitation Centres (CFCs). For this, CBEC has entered into MOUs with Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), the Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of India (ICWAI) and the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) . As per the MoUs signed by the CBEC, these CFCs will be set up by professionals from ICAI, ICWAI, ICSI holding valid Certificates of Practice. This will allow assessees who are unable to avail the e-service from home/office/other locations to do their transactions. The project will also computerize and automate the major manual processes of the Central Excise and Service Tax across the country in over 100 Central Excise, Service Tax & LTU Commissionerates, and 1027 Central Excise & Service Tax offices.[4] The automation of the process will result in faster processing of the applications received and faster turnaround time in providing a variety of services to the Central Excise and Service Tax accessees.
Services
In order to achieve its objective, areas that needed immediate attention were prioritized and following facilities have been provided to the taxpayers under ACES[3]:
- Online Registration of Central Excise Assessees and online amendment
- Online Registration of Service Tax Assesses and online amendment
- Electronic filing of Central Excise Returns
- Electronic filing of Service Tax Returns
- Electronic filing of claims, permissions, intimations submitted by assessees in the course of business with the Department.
- Instant E-acknowledgement of documents with an Unique Document Identification Number
- View, file and track the status of documents filed online
- Processing of Claims, Permissions, intimations filed by the assessee
- Revenue Reconciliation. (Receipt of payment information from Banks using EASIEST and reconciling with the information mentioned in the return submitted by the assessees)
- Online Messages/ Alerts to users on business related matters
- Automated Report Generation
- Audit Module involving selection of units based in risk parameters and tracking of audit results
- Online filing of reply to Show Cause Notice
- Online filing of application for Provisional Assessment
- Online filing of Refund Claims
- Online filing of selected Export related documents
Financials
The project is being implemented at a total cost of Rs 1133 crore.[5]
References
- ^ "Central Excise & Customs Mission Mode Project". Mit.gov.in. Retrieved 2011-06-22.
- ^ http://www.igovernment.in/site/aces-project-launched-jk-36366
- ^ a b http://www.aces.gov.in/
- ^ http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2010-12-17/science/28226914_1_service-tax-returns-electronic-filing-online-registration
- ^ http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/features/budget-enables-dual-gst_444668.html