The Finance Ministry has provided additional time for payment of Central excise duty under the e-payment route. This is being seen as the Government’s attempt to encourage central excise assessees to go in for e-payment of duties.
Central excise assessees could now pay excise duty up to the sixth day of the following month, as against the earlier specified fifth day, if they were to make the payment electronically. Additional time has also been given for excise duty payment by small scale industries (SSIs), according to a Revenue Department official.
In March this year, the Government had stipulated that central excise assessees who have to pay excise duty of Rs 50 lakh and above in a financial year would have to mandatorily do so through e-payment. This norm came into effect from April 1, 2007. Currently, 85 per cent of excise duty collections come through e-payment. For 2007-08, the Government has pegged the Budget estimate for central excise duty at about Rs 1,30,000 crore.
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