The Excise and Taxation Department, Punjab, wanted to reform and modernize
the tax administration to improve operational efficiency and bring transparency
into the system. To achieve this, a project called Computerization of Sales Tax
Information System Project (COSTISP) was started, and was later upgraded to
COVIS (Computerization of VAT information System). It captures information at
the source through 19 identified online modules, which cover the entire range of
VAT procedures. All the offices of the department are linked through
leased-lines and V-SAT to a central RISC Server at Patiala. All 825 users at 92
locations access this central server, which is capable of handling 600
concurrent users. This capacity can be enhanced to 1000 users. After the
implementation of COVIS, the interface between taxpayers and officials has
reduced. Taxpayers now only have to deal with a front-end of administration for
submitting their requests and applications and giving status of their pending
issues. This has resulted in significantly reduced discretion of officials when
dealing with taxpayers. Now only those tax-payers are called to the office whose
returns, etc, are found to be faulty or lacking in compliance. The audit module
in COVIS can isolate tax-payers who might forge their tax returns.
Project Specs |
Business problem
The process of tax administration was lengthy and complex
IT solution
An ERP solution was implemented to bring in transparency and modernize the
tax administration of Punjab
Impact
Increased operational efficiency
IT Implementation partner
ETTSA
Project Head
HMS Rosha, CEO, ETTSA
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