Patiala, September 26, 2016: ‘Technology led reforms in Service Delivery’ of the Excise and Taxation Department, Govt. of Punjab has been selected from among the 2500+ projects for the prestigious national level award- the “Skoch Order-of-Merit”. The prize was received by Sri B. Srinivasan, Additional Excise and Taxation Commissioner cum CEO ETTSA and team, during the 45th Skoch Summit on 8th-9th September 2016 in Hyderabad.
The technology led reforms that have been acknowledged by the Skoch Award Evaluation Committee include an app for the mobile wing officers that not only lets them detain a vehicle but also check the vehicle’s travel history in the state, its’ current entry route and the details of goods it is carrying – all on his smartphone. Another m-Governance initiative “Apna Tax” app, has allowed the Department of Excise and Taxation to rope in the common man in its bid to check tax evasion. In this the customer needs to upload a copy of bill using the mobile app Apna Tax & once the bill is submitted via app, the customer uploading it becomes eligible for cash prize that would be announced after a monthly lucky draw while the Department is able to deter dealers from not accounting sales in their books. Apart from that, as Sh. Rajat Aggarwal – the Excise and Taxation Commissioner of Punjab puts it, “With a focus on Ease of Doing Business for the dealers, the department has launched facilities for online application of registration, filing of returns and payment of tax facilities for all types of returns. There will be a further impetus to the citizen centric services with the transition to GST for which the preparations are already in full swing.”