The Hindu Business Line : Consolidated IT system for customs, excise, service taxes

THE Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Thursday approved the creation of a consolidated computing infrastructure for customs, central excise and service tax applications with an expenditure of Rs 167.05 crore.

The scheme envisages the establishment of central servers and storage area networks along with disaster recovery infrastructure having capacity to handle all transactions relating to customs, central excise and data warehouse.

A network would also be set up for connecting a total of 70 customs locations with ICEGATE for allowing users to log into the central servers. Currently, the customs network extends to 23 locations only.

ICEGATE stands for the Indian Customs and Central Excise Electronic Commerce/Electronic Data interchange (EC/EDI) Gateway. ICEGATE is a portal that provides e-filing services to trade and cargo carriers and other clients including customs and central excise. These clients are called trading partners.

An official spokesperson said that the scheme also provides for establishment of network that would connect all Central Excise Commissionerates to the central server. As of now, Central Excise does not have a network.

The benefits of the scheme include better service levels to trade and better information system for the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC). Further, the establishment of a consolidated computing infrastructure is seen to be financially more viable than distributed systems.

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
UK will take liberal view on visas to Indians: Straw

PSU bond obligations will be honoured, say officials

AP Oppn dubs it jugglery, CM says best ever

`Bring public servants under contract system'

Consolidated IT system for customs, excise, service taxes