Central government okays unified IT link for all tax units

The Centre has approved a grand plan to integrate customs, central excise and service tax departments through a single network having interface with exporters, importers, directorate general of foreign traded, ministry of finance and international communities.

The infrastructure would take one and half year to be in place and it will replace the existing standalone server systems. Directorate general of systems (customs and central excise) would be the executing agency for the project.

The project, worth about Rs 165 crore, has been approved by the committee of non plan expenditure two days ago. It would be sent to the Cabinet for final nod, A K Raha, director general, directorate general of systems (customs and central excise) said in Kolkata on Thursday at a seminar organised by Eastern India Shippers Association (EISA).

The system will greatly reduce the transaction time and thereby making Indian export more competitive by way of cost. This will also enable policy making bodies as well regulatory bodies to have real time information about foreign trade.

At present, there is separate sets of server at all important air, sea and land ports across the country.

"Once the consolidation work is done, all systems will be hooked to a single server. This will do away any location specific problems," Raha said.

Once the new ambitious system is in place, electronic data interface (EDI) system would be all encompassing. An exporter can make a single registration for transaction as compared to multiple registration which is required for doing business from multiple locations.

The server will also have a parallel disaster recovery site in place in case of emergency.

"If a site is hacked or damaged otherwise, a separate set of system will take over immediately," Raha explained.

Old standalone server systems will continue. Raha said temporary measures would be taken to address the specific problems being faced by exporting and importing community.