The Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs (CCEA) cleared the Rs 2,256 crore IT Project Saksham of the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC), which will help integrate CBEC’s system with the goods
The Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs (CCEA) cleared the Rs 2,256 crore IT Project Saksham of the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC), which will help integrate CBEC’s system with the goods and services tax (GST) network before the new tax dispensation rollout in April 1, 2017.
This newspaper had reported on September 28 about the move likely to be considered by the Union Cabinet. The implementation strategy for the project will be to ensure readiness of CBEC’s IT framework by April, 1, 2017, when GST is to be introduced, official sources said.
“The total project cost involved is Rs 2,256 crore, which will be incurred for over seven years,” official sources said, adding that the upgrade of the IT systems will be carried out while keeping the existing taxpayer services running.
Project Saksham will help in implementation of GST, extension of the Indian customs single window interface for facilitating trade and other taxpayer-friendly initiatives under Digital India and Ease of Doing Business of CBEC.
“All taxpayers/importers/exporters/dealers under various indirect tax laws administered by CBEC — presently about 36 lakh — are likely to go up to over 65 lakh after introduction of GST,” an official statement said.
CBEC’s IT structure needs to integrate with the goods and services tax network (GSTN) for processing of registration, payment and returns data sent to CBEC as well as act as a front-end for other modules like audit, appeal and investigation.
There is no overlap in the GST-related systems of CBEC and GSTN, the statement said.
