As part of the Centres national mission mode for e-governance, Minister of State for Finance (Revenue) S S Palanimanickam on Monday launched the Automation of Central Excise and Service Tax processes (ACES) project in all the Central Excise commissionerates of Chennai zone.

Addressing a gathering of officials and traders, the minister said the project would facilitate traders in conducting their business in the electronic mode.

The launch would be a breakthrough in business process re-engineering, bringing out transparency in the system, reducing the transaction cost and enhancing efficiency in tax administration, he added.

Considerable success has been achieved in automation of procedures in this department so far and the launch of ACES is yet another milestone in the journey towards a hassle-free administration, noted Palanimanickam.

Under the IT consolidation project of the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC), it is proposed to connect all the central excise, customs and service tax offices across the country through a wide area network and provide linkages apart from assesses to other stakeholders like custodians, banks, Directorate General of Foreign Trade and income tax for validation and online clearances.

Briefing the media about the project, Ahmed Hussain, Chief Commissioner of Central Excise, Chennai Zone, said: The automated programme is a step towards reducing the interface of the assesses with the officers. It has been designed to enhance transparency, accountability and efficiency in the indirect tax administration.

While urging the traders to approach the field officers in using the ACES without any hesitation and reap the benefits of automation, Hussain said, All the four commissionerates Chennai I, II, III and IV have also issued necessary trade notices explaining the salient features of the project and availability of service desk for any help.

Besides others, Y G Parande, Member, CBEC and D P Dash, CBEC Additional Director General of Systems also spoke.