Commercial tax dept to launch e-banking soon

TRADERS WILL no longer face the inconvenience of standing in long queues at bank counters to make payments due to the Commercial (Trade) Tax Department. A click of the mouse will solve their problems now. The Commercial Tax Department is now set to launch Internet-banking facility for traders. The new system may just be a corollary to the modern VAT regime. Commercial tax commissioner Sunil Kumar said discussions with various banks were on and necessary arrangements being made to begin the system. “We will introduce Internet banking during this financial year itself,” he said. The National Informatics Centre (NIC) will develop the website. The department will sign a memorandum of understanding with NIC and banks for providing the services. Under Internet banking, a user can get connected to his bank’s website to perform any of the virtual functions. The E-banking (Internet banking) will enable traders to fill their challan forms and file their returns, besides carrying out other transactions with the commercial tax department. The control will be transferred to the Bank Net Payment Gateway with appropriate parameters. The Bank Payment Gateway will return some parameters for successful/failure transaction with some unique reference key. NIC/ Commercial Tax Department will issue receipt based on this reference key. The banks concerned will provide the server IP address, user ID password for testing net banking payment before the system is actually implemented. Nine nationalised and three private banks have evinced interest in the project. Among them are Allahabad Bank, Central Bank of India, Canara Bank, Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda, State Bank of India, Union Bank of India, Syndicate Bank, ICICI, HDFC and Axis Bank. Their representatives, along with NIC officials, participated in a meeting called by the commercial tax commissioner here on Monday. – www.yahoonews.com