ACES faces many hurdles

 It is an online service to dispense with paper work in matters pertaining to Central Excise and Service tax.

Fast, safe and reliable services are today sought by every person. But this can sometimes also be a cause for trouble for him. The Automation of Central Excise and Service Tax (ACES) facility offered to tax-payers, which enables them to get registered online, is one such thing.

There are many challenges in implementation of ACES. The first challenge is to halt the heavy traffic of queries; the second is ambiguous clarification of the service. Reaching its awareness among people is another issue of ACES.

ACES has been developed by the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) to turn paper work into an online service. Assessees are given the option of ACES for their Service Tax and Central Excise-related matters. This consists of a kind of software that enables taxpayers to go for non-manual dealings of service Tax and Central Excise issues.

ACES users are provided with Temporary Personal Identification Number (TPIN) and password to access their account.

They are linked with the nearest commissionerate. It is learnt that users are facing many problems while accessing the ACES scheme. 

Assessees are facing problems in accessing ACES at a time of their choice, ostensibly due to server being down. Sometimes, system administration is unable to take action on time and solve the problem.

There is no denying that ACES has the potential to improve the efficiency, transparency and accountability of Indirect Tax Administration. Ten Cites  Bengaluru, Chennai, Colmbatore, Mumbai, Bhubneshwar, Delhi, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Jaipur and Kolkata have this online service. The government is planning to make the use of ACES compulsory for at least large companies.

It appears that most people are not aware of this service. Also, most people still believe in paper work and refuse to opt for information technology-based system. They also seem to have doubts about the reliability of ACES. Distinguishing new assessees is also difficult in this system. A few people say that digital signature on documents is also problematic.

If we compare the online service for Service Tax with that of Income-Tax and the Registrar of Companies (ROC), the former has failed to satisfy users. At the time of registration to avail the online service, it is necessary for the users to submit application and required documents to range officers by hand, who will provide them with password. Moreover, the government provided this service without proper advertisement, giving rise to questions in users' mind about its efficacy.