Electronic payment of service tax by high value service tax payers has not gathered momentum going by the information available with the Finance Ministry. On the other hand, electronic payment of excise duty has been a big success although the mandatory payment norm came into effect only from April 1 this year.

Only about 50 per cent of the high value service tax payers, who are required to fulfil their services tax obligation through electronic payment, is using this mode of payment, a senior Finance Ministry official said.

We are quite hopeful this situation would change in the coming days, the official added.

Mandatory e-payment

The Government had last year made electronic payment of service tax mandatory from October 1, 2006 for certain category of service tax assessees. All service tax assessees whose payment of service tax exceeds Rs 50 lakh in a financial year would have to pay service electronically, the Government had then said.

Currently, services account for about 56 per cent of the countrys gross domestic product. In fiscal 2006-07, the Centre collected service tax of about Rs 38,169 crore and has targeted collection level of Rs 50,200 crore in fiscal 2007-08.

Meanwhile, electronic payment of excise duty has taken off in a big way if one went by the duty collections made through this mode. About 89 per cent of the Centres excise duty collections is made through electronic payments mode. The Finance Ministry had with effect from April 1 this year made it mandatory for assessees with excise duty obligations of over Rs 50 lakh to make e-payments only.