Chhattisgarh moots IT in commercial tax dept

The department of commercial tax in Chhattisgarh is mooting a plan to make the working in the department more hi-tech with the use of information technology (IT).

“We are planning to make the entire working of the department on-line in future,” state's commercial tax minister Amar Agrawal said. The move is powered with the success the department had received in practicing IT in the working earlier.

In October 2006, the department started the e-challan and e-return facilities in the state to facilitate the tax-payers to file their returns at the click of the mouse. Chhattisgarh was the first state in the country to introduce the facility.

Agrawal said the e-return and e-challan facilities had evoked overwhelming response with more and more traders availing the benefits from their establishment instead of walking to the department office.

Of the total commercial tax collected by the department till December 31, about 55 per cent had been filed through on-line.

The minister informed that by the end of the third quarter of the current fiscal, the department had received Rs 3724 crore as commercial tax. Of the revenue, Rs 2061.08 crore had been collected through on-line, Agrawal said. About 10,000 traders and businessmen had filed their e-returns.

The commercial tax department had authorised five nationalized banks to collect the tax through on-line.

According to Agrawal, the department officials were working on the plan to make all the working in the department on-line.

This includes on-line registration of the firm, on-line C, F and E forms.

The traders had to come to the department offices to collect the forms and submit the manually.