Only Three ACES
AUTOMATION of Central Excise and Service Tax (ACES) is the e - governance initiative by Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC). It is one of the Mission Mode Projects of the Government of India under National e - Governance Plan. It is a software application which aims at improving tax - payer services, transparency, accountability and efficiency in the indirect tax administration in India. This application is a web - based and workflow - based system that has automated all major procedures in Central Excise (CX) and Service Tax (ST).
The ACES application was initially rolled - out in the Large Taxpayer Unit (LTU) Commissionerate in Bengaluru in December 2008 and subsequently implemented across India in phases.
ACES application has been designed to function as centralised, web - based, workflow - based system to provide complete end - to - end solutions for covering major processes in CX and ST administration. Users can access ACES from https://www.aces.gov.in website and can choose between ST and CX options. ACES application for CX contains ten modules namely Access Control Logic (ACL), Registration, Return, Provisional Assessment, Claims and intimation (CLI), Dispute Settlement Resolution, Refund, Export, Audit and Report. Similarly, ACES contains eight modules for ST (except CLI and Export).
The CAG conducted an audit of the working of ACES and found that:
1. There was no provision in ACES for selection of returns for detailed scrutiny on the basis of in built risk parameters. Further, no time limit for review of marked returns was inserted in the Return module.
2. There was no provision in ACES to upload/attach any documents and also no provision for digital signature.
3. The role of legal, adjudication, preventive/anti evasion wing etc., were not mapped in 33 Commissionerates out of 40 selected Commissionerates and also no access provided to Inspector level officials.
4. Only three modules (Access Control Logic, Registration and Return) out of the ten modules in ACES are being utilised by the stakeholders.
5. A large number of returns for Central Excise and Service Tax are being marked for Review and Correction due to small errors which can be addressed by having proper/strong validations.
6. Non - conducting of trainings, seminars/workshops is one of the main reasons for skewed utilisation of ACES.
7. Even after five years of implementation of ACES, no post implementation review of ACES was carried out.
The CAG Recommendations and Board's replies:
1. There is a need to simplify the cumbersome procedure adopted in respect of mapping of employees in ACES to save man days that go unutilised during the period of assignment of roles in ACES. One of the methodology that can be adopted to achieve this is to incorporate transfer and posting of employees in the ACES system itself.
Board's Reply: incorporating transfer and posting of officers in the ACES is not possible, as the ACES was not contemplated as a tool to manage Human Resources.
2. Provision for complete linking of outstanding liabilities to processing surrender applications may be introduced by making the liabilities available offline a part of ACES.
Board's Reply: the system checks if any amount is outstanding against the assessee as per information available in ACES. Pre - ACES dues in respect of some assessees, who had migrated to ACES and liabilities that occur in the offline mode during Audit or investigation are not captured in ACES.
3. In view of Ministry's commitment to grant registration in two days to overcome delay in issue of Registration certificates, prompt completion of Physical Verification must be ensured.
4. Electronic filing may be made mandatory for compulsory intimations such as Invoice Books and Records maintenance and CLI module may be introduced for ST also so as to ultimately reduce the interface of the assessees with the departmental officers.
Board's Reply: the utilisation of CLI module depends on the assessees and the audit's suggestion for making e - filing of certain compulsory intimations mandatory will be examined by the Board for implementation. Extension of CLI module for ST and development of some modules needing upload of documents may be considered after upgradation of the current infrastructure.
5. Provision may be inserted in ACES at field level for generation of customised reports in general and MTR in particular to minimise manual reporting and the related discrepancies in reports. Since the ACES is under implementation for more than five years, there is a need to revisit/update the systems to make all the modules operational and also generate required MIS from ACES.
Board's Reply: unless completeness and correctness of data in all the modules is ensured, the report generated in ACES will not be complete. The remedy lies in encouraging and convincing the assessees for using all modules of ACES so that relevant data is captured in the system. This may also require Business Process re - engineering in certain areas of work after consultation with the trade.
6. In view of a very low/partial utilisation of Provisional Assessment, Export, Refund, Claims and Intimations, Dispute Settlement Resolution and Audit modules by department/assessees, the Department may review the usage of all modules, and take action to identify and remove bottlenecks to make the system user friendly and result oriented.
Board's Reply: as regards usage of the modules, since the usage of many modules have not been made mandatory by Board, there has not been full usage of these modules. After necessary modifications are carried out in the modules, and necessary infrastructure is in place, the usage of the modules will have to be made mandatory by Board, so that the system can function effectively and efficiently.
7. Department may make a strategic plan to provide need based and structured training to employees and to conduct awareness seminars for assessees and periodically review the same.
Board's Reply: The Board agrees with the recommendation of the Audit to widen the coverage of the training programme.
(Source: CAG's Report No. 46/2015)