Automation of Central Excise and Service Tax (ACES)

Automation in Central Excise and Service TAX (ACES), which is a Mission Mode project (MMP) under the National e-governance plan of the Govt. of India has been developed by the Directorate of Systems and is now ready to be rolled-out in phases commencing in November/December, 2008. This application aims to automate all major processes in Central Excise and Service Tax through a centralized, workflow-based applilcation. ACES will gradually replace the current applications used in Central Excise and Service Tax for capturing returns and registration details of the Assessees, viz. SERMON, SACER, SAPS, STREMS. While ACES has been designed to work in the digital signature enabled environment, it has been decided to introduce digital signatures at a later stage when the implementation of the new system is stabilized.

ACES encompasses the entire gamut of Central Excise and Service Tax processes - registration, returns, accounting, refunds, dispute resolution, audit, provisional assessment, exports, claims, intimations and permissions. It provides interface to the Assessee to carry out all major activities online such as registration, filing and tracking of returns, claims and statutory intimations. It has interfaces with the Income Tax department's database for verification of PAN numbers; with EASIEST for verification of payment particulars reflected in the GAR & challan data received from the Banks and with ICES (Indian Customs EDI System) for verification of exports. The internal messaging/alert system will provide timely information/reminders to Departmental officers on pending tasks, so that important items of work are not lost sight of. We are also planning to provide a Learning Management System (LMS) which would be available to the Assessee as well as the officers to understand and test their skills in navigating through the various modules of application.

ACES is being launched, to begin with, in selected pilot locations viz. Bangalore LTU, Belapur, Bhubaneswar II, Chennai ST, Coimbatore, and Delhi III (Gurgaon). In the first phase few important modules such as Registration, Central Excise returns (ER1 & 3) and Service Tax Return (ST3), etc shall be made operational. Other modules whichare also ready shall be introduced gradually. Simultaneously, ACES shall also be rolled out in other locations depending upon implementation of the LAN project.

To know the details about ACES, one can visit the official website of ACES by clicking the link provided below:

Automation of Central Excise and Service Tax (ACES)