The Centre has for the first time allowed tax payers in the services sector to file their returns electronically.

Life insurance and insurance auxiliary services, general insurance businesses, advertising agencies, stock brokers, courier services, banking and financial service providers and customs house agents will be able to avail of this facility from the new fiscal year. Both new and existing assessee will be allowed to file their tax returns electronically.

As this facility is being tried out for the first time, the finance ministry has assured that the revenue department will waive the penalty for late filing of returns under Section 77 of the Finance Act, 1994, for delays up to a month.

The ministry said an assessee, who has opted for e-filing, will have the option of filing returns manually if he fails to obtain a computer-generated acknowledgment within 25 days.

However, the Central Board of Excise and Customs has said this relaxation will not be extended to cases in which taxes are not paid on time or the value of taxable services is mis-declared.

At present, service tax payers have to file their returns twice a year.

In the last fiscal, the Central Board of Direct Taxes had launched a pilot project for bulk filing of tax returns by a company for its employees.

The Central Board of Excise and Customs has, however, added a rider. It has said that assessees who do not possess the 15-digit STP code will have to submit copies of challans as evidence of having paid their duties earlier.

To popularise the electronic tax filing scheme, the board has asked its commissioners to ensure that at least some assesees opt for it.

Based on the response to the scheme, Central Board of Excise and Customs will revise the guidelines in September this year to make it more user friendly.

No need to queue up

• As this facility is being tried out for the first time, the revenue department will waive the penalty for late filing of returns, for delays up to a month.
• An assessee, who has opted for e-filing, will have the option of filing returns manually if he fails to obtain a computer-generated acknowledgment within 25 days.
• Assessees who do not have the 15-digit STP code will have to submit copies of challans as evidence of having paid their duties earlier.