The revenue growth in Coimbatore is nearly twice as much as the all-India growth, said Kusum Satapathy, Chief Commissioner, Customs, Central Excise and Service Tax, at a function held in the city on Monday.

It is heartening to note that while the all-India revenue growth is only 30 per cent, the revenue growth in Coimbatore Zone is 65 per cent almost twice the all-India growth, she said at the Outreach Programme to New Assessees of Central Excise and Service Tax', organised by the Coimbatore office in association with the Coimbatore District Small Industries Association.

Ms. Satapathy released a handbook on Service Tax in the presence of C. Rajendiran, Commissioner of Customs, Central Excise and Service Tax, M. Kandhaswami, president, CODISSIA, Raviselvan and P. Muthusamy, Additional Commissioners, Central Excise and Service Tax and S. Surulivel, Honorary Secretary, CODISSIA.

The surge in all-India revenue collection was reflected in the five commissionerates in Coimbatore Zone as well. During the period April June 2011, the Coimbatore Zone had collected total duty/ tax of Rs. 585 crore. For the corresponding period last year it was Rs. 354 crore. The growth was 42 per cent in Customs, 86 per cent in Central Excise and 31 per cent in Service Tax.

She said the shift from control-based regime to self-assessment-based system was the hallmark of the trust reposed by the Government on trade and industry. The stand-alone, customised and user friendly software ACES on the Central Excise and Service Tax side and ICES 1.5 on the Customs side only reinforced the intention of the Central Government to create an uninterrupted platform for the officers to fulfil the role of facilitator in a meaningful manner.

The importance of being well-informed had a major role to play in a trust-based, self-assessment regime. While the need to be well informed was applicable to both officers as well as the trade and industry, the advantage of being well informed was more for the trade and industry, as this would help them to run their business in a safe mode without attracting the penal provisions, interest clause and the deterrent action for non compliance and duty evasion.

She congratulated the Coimbatore Commissionerate for conducting a number of in-house capacity building programmes for officers.

Earlier in the day she launched the facility to file online the drawback shipping bills. The implementation of drawback bills under ICES 1.5 would replace the existing practice of filing of manual shipping bills and the issuance of drawback cheque manually.

It would also spare the exporters of the trouble of visiting the customs stations for filing documents.

Mr. Rajendiran said for the country to become a superpower a robust tax administration was necessary and added that the Coimbatore Commissionerate was moving towards providing such an administration. Mr. Kandhaswami welcomed the gathering.