Now, pay sales tax via ATMs

What all uses can the ATM-cum-Debit Card possibly be put to? That you can withdraw cash, verify balance in the account, transfer funds, make utility bill payments, fill gas, buy rail tickets, and shop till you drop are a given.

Now, how about using the card to make sales tax payments? Yes, efforts in this direction are underway with the Rajasthan government seeking to leverage the card so that sales tax payments can be made via the ATMs.

As part of a broader mandate to assist it in the implementation of Value Added Tax, the Rajasthan government has asked leading management consulting firm KPMG to carry out a feasibility study in this regard.

Besides saving sales tax payers the botheration of trudging all the way to the designated banks to make payments via bank drafts/ cheques, the ATM-cum-debit card will allow the state's revenue account with the Reserve Bank of India to be credited instantaneously.

In fact a few private sector banks have approached the central bank for allowing sales tax payments to be made via the alternate delivery channel i.e., ATMs.

"The Rajasthan government wants to automate the sales tax payments process. Automation offers the dual advantage of not only facilitating payment of sales tax at the nearest ATM but also instantaneous credit of funds to the state government's coffers," Bhavna Doshi, partner, Bharat S Raut & Co., told Business Standard.

The ATM will generate an acknowledgment for the tax payments made even as the state's sales tax data gets updated online.

Doshi pointed out that an ATM vendor had come forward to suitably incorporate a software that will allow for such payments.

A pilot testing of the concept is likely to be carried out at the state's sales tax headquarters at Jaipur soon.

At a later stage the ATMs could also be used to generate 'C Forms', which are required for movement of goods from one state to another.

Sales tax is an indirect tax levied by the state governments on the sale or purchase of goods and has no necessary connection with the manufacturer.

The manufacturer is liable, if at all, to sales tax because he sells the goods and not because he manufactures them.