Date: 8th August, 2007

To
Hon’ble Shri Sanjay Bhatia,
The Commissioner of Sales Tax,
Maharashtra State,
Mumbai

Re : Computerisation of the Sales Tax Department

Respected Sir,

We hereby suggest salient features of the system of online interaction with the Sales Tax Department / Dealers:

Objectives

• To create a dealer-friendly environment

• To bring greater transparency in the working of the Sales Tax Department

• To provide clean and efficient governance

Steps to be taken to achieve the above objectives

• Online submission of VAT Registration Application

• It helps in reducing the mistakes in making data entries

• It saves the time of the department in terms of data entry

(Presently PAN application under the Income-tax Act and host of other applications under the various governments departments are done in this fashion)

Some administrative incentive should be provided to those dealers who file the application online – in order to encourage them for such a use e.g. those who make online application would be allotted RCs on the same day (subject to fulfilling of the other requirements) than those who apply in a physical form only.

• Online submission of sales tax return and payment of tax

• Updated data with the department, of the tax payment and return position

(right now the concerned ward has got no information about the accurate data of tax payment and return position. Dealer gets a notice / phone from the department to furnish details of last few years of the tax payment and return position. Same problem arises at the time of getting "Tax Clearance Certificate". With the introduction of online facility problem mentioned above could be avoided)

• This facility should be such that either a dealer can use it directly or his consultant can file returns on behalf of his clients, from his place to the department directly.

• Department may develop web-based application for the same.

(right now, Income Tax Department has provided such facility)

• Tax payment in the bank should be entered by the bank in the web-based software of the department.

(Department will have authentic details of tax collection: city-wise, ward-wise etc. Also comparison can be made against the payment of the corresponding month of the last year, immediate preceding month etc.)

• Make available soft-copy of the relevant forms or still better make available ‘applets’ for creating, filling and submission of various forms.

(The advantage of applets over the simple Word or Excel format is that column width etc. would be exactly same, which will ensure better integration with the system of the department. In simple Word or Excel format file format field width could be changed which may create problem in the integration with the system of the department)

It will also save government stationery.

• Law-updates through E-mails:

• Dealer should be informed of about the trade circulars, Notifications, Act, rules etc. through e-mails

• A provision should be made in the mass mail itself to ‘un-subscribe’ if any dealer for any reason does not wish to get informed by an e-mail, he can do so by clicking on an ‘un-subscribe’ button

• Department’s website to make more informative and user-friendly

• An option should be provided to access circulars either in ‘ascending order’ or in ‘descending order’. Right now it can be accessed only in ‘ascending order’ meaning oldest circular is listed first and latest circular is listed at the last.

• Usually in any website a ‘triangle shaped’ icon is provided which will toggle with each click and change the order of ‘ascending search’ and 'descending search’.

(where there is a big list of items this facility will save time in from scrolling up and down.

• Schedule Entries: Alphabetical index is must to find out the applicable tax rate on a particular item.

• Give detailed organizational setup details. Any dealer should be able to find out the Telephone numbers and location of a particular officer, who he wants to meet.

• Communicating through e-mail with any officer in case of simple information should be made available. And listing of e-mail IDs should be made available on the net along with his telephone numbers etc.

• Authentic details:

Utmost care should be exercised in putting up the details on the website. Any minor mistake can have serious repercussion to the dealers.

(Many a times we have noticed that the content available on the website and on the hard copy are different. The content should up-loaded only after proper authentication)

• Incomplete or no details are available in certain section of the website:

At present there are many sections in which either information is not available at or it is incomplete. Care should be taken to provide accurate and updated information. Website address of many State Governments is changed but still old website address (URL) is put up on the site.

• Aesthetics:

After user friendliness, aesthetics is the second most neglected area in any Government site!

Layout of the site must be pleasing to eyes. Small country like Nepal has got excellent site with pastel colours. And most surprisingly it is bi-lingual – is in English as well as in Hindi! Why our website should not be available in English as well as Marathi? More dealers, especially from rural areas, would be able to take benefit of the site.

• Trivial but useful details:

Details like list of public holidays etc. also must be put up on the website.

• Proper training to departmental staff and awareness campaign:

• The staff must be provided with proper training relating to use of computer and internet.

• Proper awareness through media must be created so that dealer would feel at ease to communicate through e-mails
  
  (recently vital data were asked from the dealer through an e-mail of his total turnover, tax payment etc. It is very risky to respond such mails because it could be sent by any hacker impersonating as a Sales Tax Officer through a faked e-mail ID).

• Data security issue must be addressed for the safety and privacy of dealers’ data.

• Interaction with the mass:

• in order to have any system to be successful continuous feedback should be gathered for the improvement in the system.

• Various dealers organisations’ and professional organisations’ feedback should be obtained on a continuous basis.

These are some of the suggestions, which we can think of at the moment for creating a bridge of trust between the department, dealers and the professionals.

Thank you for giving us an opportunity to explain our view on the subject.