E-governance in Commercial Tax Administration THE WEST BENGAL EXPERIENCE

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1 E-governance in Commercial Tax Administration THE WEST BENGAL EXPERIENCE

2 VISION To build up an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) enabled modern tax administration that is transparent, equitable and efficient.

3 MISSION To build a robust IT infrastructure for seamless, transparent and efficient services to the people of the state. To cause process transformation and roll out e- services and replace the archaic manual system To develop a system capable to prevent tax evasion and encourage compliance.

4 A brief about the Commercial Tax Directorate (CTD) With a humble beginning as a levy to meet war time expenses that dates back to 1941, Sales Tax gradually went on to become the mainstay of state revenue. It now accounts for more than 60 per cent of State s own revenue and continues to grow steadily, constantly trying to reach the target set for it. It was among the first few state govt. wings that took pioneering steps to usher in e- governance in West Bengal.

5 Collection of Tax by CTD over the last one decade Growth of Collection ( ) Rs. in Crore VAT/CST/W BST Total VAT/CST/WBST Total Profession Tax Coal Cess Cess on Petrol Grow th % Year

6 Targets & Achievements of Collection of taxes (Net Figures) Rs. in crores Target Achievement

7 Some lacunae of the prereform era The basic legal provisions marked by multiple tax rates, concessions and the procedures laid down to implement it were complex. Every major process like registration, filing of returns, payment of tax, obtaining forms and waybills required frequent physical visits to the department causing harassment of the taxpayer. Monitoring processes were manual with room for avoidable discretions and record keeping system was archaic.

8 Purposes of reform Increase ease of compliance for dealers through simplification and standardisation of legal provisions and procedures Minimise discretion and arbitrariness in decision making and administrative actions Reduce avoidable physical visits to ST offices Increase operational efficiency & faster disposal To develop a robust database and use ICT to prevent evasion of tax through.

9 Towards reforms step by step Database cleaning Providing user id and password Amendments in law Constitution of PeMT Preparation of Detailed Project Report Establish Connectivity and networking Procure hardware Develop applications Roll out e-services Measures to facilitate access to e-services Use ICT for effective tax monitoring

10 Cleaning of Database The cleaning process aimed at - Elimination of non-entities by way of cancellation of registration certificates of the dealers who had closed down their respective businesses or whose liability to pay tax had ceased; and To discourage the habitual defaulters and induce them in filing periodic Returns in time. Centralized initiative was taken by issue of show cause notices to defaulters of returns for two successive quarters. In the process around 57 thousand registration certificates have been cancelled through centralized initiative.

11 User id and password User-ID and Password was communicated to the dealers individually up to A dealer can generate his own User-ID & Password from 01/04/2010 by providing his RC No, PAN and his address as stored in the CTD database. All electronic services are single sign-on services.

12 Amendments in law Amendments in the Act and Rules are necessary to make adequate legal provisions to introduce electronic methods in vital processes like filing of returns, application and grant of registration, dematerialised waybills, transit declarations, central forms etc under the relevant Acts like the VAT, CST, Sales Tax Act and Profession Tax Act.

13 Constitution of PeMT A Project e-mission Team was formed under the stewardship of the Commissioner of Sales Tax and representatives of NIC, WTL, Finance Department as members. A number of sub-committees with officers of the Directorate were set up under the PeMT for the purpose of development of different modules. These sub-committees helped from preparation of SRS to suggestions to fine tune e-services at the post roll out stages.

14 CONNECTIVITY AND NETWORKING Most of the offices of CTD are connected under WAN on (WBSWAN) as backbone.. Rest offices are directly connected through BSNL leased line/ Managed Leased Line (MLLN).

15 NETWORKING - LAN Each office of CTD have LAN to access the Central database /Alpha Server at Beliaghata HQ. Total 996 LAN connections have been provided to various Charge, Range, and Circle and Profession Tax offices. Work is underway to install another 1600 LAN points.

16 EXTERNAL CONNECTIVITY E-services are hosted at NIC web server at Rowdon Street office. The CTD Beleghata is connected to NIC Rowdon Street through 10 mbps BSNL link, Power grid Corporation provides redundant connectivity. The CTD HQ is connected to the Writers building to avail the SWAN backbone.

17 PROCUREMENT OF HARDWARE PURCHASE OF CENTRAL SERVER The existing central Alpha server was procured in 2002 and the OEM has declared its end of life. CTD, WB has purchased a new central server located at the State Data Center (SDC) Salt lake SDC is connected to the HQ at Beliaghata through two 1Gbps link lines.

18 PROCUREMENT OF HARDWARE The Commercial Tax Directorate is going to procure the following system of servers soon One Web server to support the web based services Two Disaster Recovery Server (DRS) to be located at different seismic zone Two Development servers

19 PROCUREMENT OF PC, PRINTERS The goal is to provide computer support to all functional units at all levels. Desktops, UPS and printers have been procured in phases through open tender in strict compliance of purchase policy of the state government. At present there are almost 1500 PCs and more are going to be procured

20 ROLL OUT OF ONLINE SERVIVES The Commercial Tax Directorate has rolled out various e-services that may be accessed through its official website

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22 The e-services rolled out by CTD are related to Registration Payment of tax Way bill Transit Declaration Declaration forms Returns VAT Refund Dealers Profile Sales tax Deduction at Source (STDS) Industrial Promotion and Assistance Scheme(IPAS) Grievance redressal Anti-evasion

23 ONLINE REGISTRATION Introduced w.e.f 01/04/2010 and now it is mandatory. Make online application Send physical copy by post (not Required if digitally signed) Officer grant/interim objection/reject with reason No personal interview or visit to the place of business Print of certificate of registration may be obtained

24 Usage of e-registration service during Period : Nos. of Applications Filed Nos. of Applications Disposed 9848 Nos. of Demat RC Generated 9848 Nos. of Applications Filed Nos. of Applications Disposed Nos. of Demat RC Generated

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26 ONLINE PAYMENT OF TAX introduced from May 2008 From 3 banks to 9 banks Accounts for about 80% of total collection. Regular transmission of e-payment data by banks to CTD. Introduction of payment portal of Finance Deptt from for e-payment. After all the validation checking, they will be redirected to the selected bank s portal for payment. In new system, more banks (nationalised banks as well as private banks) will be given authorisation.

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28 E-payment becoming the main mode of tax payment with time % 32% 55% e-payment Manual Payment 68% e-payment Manual Payment

29 ONLINE WAYBILL Introduced w.e.f No endorsement is needed at checkposts Advance declaration Consignee generate key Consignor/transporter can print waybill using the key Validity 30 days UC within 40 days Auto enhancement of quota based on UC UR dealers can also obtain online waybill w.e.f

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35 Online generation of Way bill Total Nos. of Demat Waybills Generated Total Nos. of Demat Waybills Generated

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37 ONLINE TRANSIT DECLARATION (TD) Required to transport goods using West Bengal as corridor Online TD was introduced w.e.f Online TD is generated without any counter signature of any official. After exit of the goods from West Bengal the utilisation has to be submitted electronically within two days.

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39 Generation & utilisation of e-td

40 ONLINE DECLARATION FORMS Dealers were allowed the facility to generate dematerialized Central Forms ( C and F )Forms in respect of transactions made with effect from 01/04/2010. The printed forms need not be endorsed by any authority of the Commercial Taxes Directorate.

41 Generation of Demat CST forms

42 ONLINE RETURNS Introduced w.e.f Q.E. 31/12/2007 for only 4518 selected dealers under VAT & CST Acts. Made compulsory from the period Q.E. 31/3/2010. However, dealers are required to submitted signed hardcopy of return at the charge offices. Filing of e-return under Profession Tax and WBST Act started from 31/12/09 and

43 Growth in number of e-returns

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45 Digital Signature Certificate CTD has introduced the facility to file e-return using Digital Signature Certificate (DSC) for the return period of Q.E This will relieve dealers of the obligation to file hard copy of returns. The government is allowing small dealers with turnover below Rs. 2 Crores to obtain DSC at subsidized rates

46 SHORT MESSAGING SERVICE The CTD has introduced Two types of SMS service - Intimation SMS service- for the benefit of the taxpayers Query SMS service- facilitates queries by the officers of the Directorate as well as dealers.

47 OTHER IMPORTANT E-SERVICES ONLINE VAT REFUND Online application for pre-assessment refund. Refund payment through ECS introduced from 08/07/2011 E-STDS Online Enrolment/ Registration with (STDS) Cell Generation of online STDS certificate and scroll introduced w.e.f. 22/01/2012.

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50 OTHER IMPORTANT E-SERVICES E-Industrial Promotion and Assistance Scheme (IPAS) Online application for industrial assistance. E-declaration for Deemed Assessment Online filing of declaration necessary to get selected for deemed assessment.

51 OTHER IMPORTANT E-SERVICES E-grievance Online filing of grievance petition introduced from 25/7/2011. Out of 133 cases of grievance received during , 116 were redressed. E-Anti-evasion Online furnishing of information by citizen to promote anti-evasion efforts.

52 WHAT S NEXT E-SAHAJ a composite single online return for VAT, CST and WBST Acts. Online post assessment refund Online Appeal, Revision, Recovery Online registration under WBST Act Online Audit & Assessment

53 FACILITATING INITIAVES USER MANUALS for each e-service provided in the website. HELPDESK CTD is running helpdesk at its Headquarters. An Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) based helpline facility is going to be set up soon. FACILITATION CENTERS (F.C.) 229 private F.C.s spread all over the state to facilitate e-services. Subsidy against free return filing services rendered to small dealers. VAT Return Preparers (VRP) Initiative has been taken to train 1000 unemployed youths as VRP.

54 I.T. for Departmental Users IMPACT Dealer profile MIS INTERNAL WEBSITE TINXSYS

55 IMPACT Dealer profile A comprehensive in-house application titled IMPACT ( Information Management for Promotion of Administration in Commercial Taxes) for the CTD. Departmental users get detail information of registered dealers on registration data, return figure, import data, payment details and so on.

56 Details of the dealer against the given RC No. are displayed in the following way - Circle Group Trade Name Proprietor s Name Address of principal place of business To clear the screen click here To view these information click on the activated Get buttons WBST No. CST No. VAT No.

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58 MIS and Internal Website MIS like mis-match reports on claims of input tax credit, total import during a period made by dealers, total payment of tax etc for effective revenue monitoring. An internal website for departmental circulars, orders, trade circulars, e-service related information, new announcements etc.

59 MIS reports generated by ISD for Charge offices to work upon Non filers with huge sale Comparison of Tax growth Sale Purchase mismatch Waybill-vs-purchase-vs-sale-vs-tax paid Provisional assessment for return defaulter Same purchaser and sellers Waybill generated by return defaulter Excess ITC claim

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61 TINXSYS Tax Information Exchange System ( TINXSYS ) is a Centralized solution to facilitate Information exchange between State Commercial Taxes Departments (CTD) TINXSYS is a solution to address problems associated with tracking of nationwide Inter-state trade. TINXSYS is a database of all inter-state transactions for generating requisite MIS (Management Information System) reports for participating states in the nation. TINXSYS provides a platform for dealers to verify the validity of registration numbers (TIN) and CST Forms of their counter party dealers.

62 TINXSYS data availibility The system has a data backup since All participating states share the Dealer info and CST Forms info of the respective state with this system West Bengal is one of the pioneers in uploading such data to this platform since There is a direct connectivity between the state HQ and the TINXSYS data centre TINXSYS periodically fetches data straight from the intermediary server to their system All dematerialsied forms data are available in TINXSYS Current data availibility for WB is up to ( likely to be updated by end of this month)

63 Scope of Information exchange Way bill information C form Information TD information Dealers existence Transporter enrolment Vehicle registration and movement Documents endorsement at different checkposts

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65 CCT/WB AddlCCT

66 Thank You