Friday, April 29 2005 14:20 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: In a bid to cut red tape and introduce e-governance, Finance Ministry today (Apr 29, 2005) decided to reduce the paperwork drastically from May 1.

Announcing this, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said that the total number of periodic reports that has to be made by assesses to indirect tax authorities has been drastically reduced from 133 to a mere seven.

This follows the recommendation of a Working Group that went into the streamlining of management information system reports and returns, many of which were found to be "redundant and repetitive".

The format of reports has also been revised so as to make them amenable to electronic filing and processing.

The move is part of Government's e-governance project that is aimed at reducing the interface between tax assesses and taxmen, increase efficiency and improve revenue mop up.

"Without compromising the genuine need for data and information for effective administrative monitoring and policy making, the new system would ensure greater efficiency, substantial saving in resources and availability of reliable data in a timely manner," an official release said.

The working group reviewed the current system of management information system reports and returns prepared by field officers of Customs, Central Excise and Service Tax.

The group said the number of reports and returns had grown to "unmanageable proportions" over the years owing to the introduction of several ad-hoc reports from time to time.

"Apart from straining the administrative resources of the tax department, this implied numerous and unnecessary interaction with the assesses from whom the requisite information was often required to be collected," an official release said.