REGISTRATION AT YOUR DOORSTEP --- A NOVEL SCHEME

By

 

K. VIJAY KUMAR

 

 

    No edition of E.L.T. is complete without some report about some high handed behavior or anti-assessee attitude of some Central Excise Officer. Amidst such a scene, I am happy to report to E.L.T. readers a refreshing, novel and assessee-friendly project launched by Mr. A.S.R. Nair, Commissioner of Central Excise, Visakhapatnam.

    On, Saturday, the 24^th of October 1998, a holiday for the Central Excise Officers, people of Visakhapatnam witnessed a rare scene. About twenty officers of Central Excise were busy accepting, processing and issuing Registration Certificates to various assesses under the Service Tax. In about three hours, 97 registration certificates were issued, outside office hours, outside the office, at a meeting organized by the Tax Bar Association of Visakhapatnam, an organization of Chartered Accountants and Advocates. They had organized a workshop on Service Tax into the net of which, recently Chartered Accountants. Were brought in. This was certainly a workshop with a difference. Apart from the usual speeches and clarifications, Mr.Nair arranged for spot registration of Service Tax assesses at the workshop venue. A prospective assessee just walked in, took an application provided by the Department, filled it up there ( a couple of Inspectors told me that they even provided pens for filling in the application forms), presented the application in another counter and obtained an acknowledgment. Then he went round greeting friends and sipping coffee. Meanwhile, the Excise Officers wee processing the applications, making necessary entries in their registers, preparing registration certificates, getting them printed on departmental computers, special carried to the venue for this purpose and getting them signed by the respective Assistant Commissioners who were also ready and waiting. And all this was done in a record time of seven minutes! By the time our assessee had finished his coffee and went to a specific counter his registration certificate was ready. All that he had to do was to collect it and walk away happily! There was not even any scope for allegations of corruption or delay. And 97 happy people walked away with registration certificates in their pockets without spending even a paisa. Even the application form was given by by the department. One good deed leads to another and Mr. Nair said this was not the end of is. The President of the Association wanted to know if the Commissioner would gives another opportunity to those people who could not avail of this special scheme. The Commissioner readily agreed to have one more such spot registration in the first week of November. Every one was full of praise for Mr. Nair, but the Commissioner in all humility told the association, "I am grateful to you, you have made my job easier, it would have taken a lot of time for my officers to register 97 persons".

    Normally to get a registration, first you have to obtain an application form, fill it up and hand it over to the officer, answer questions from the officers, wait for some days and then again go to the office may be a few times to collect your registration certificate after hearing excuses like, " the AC is busy, could you come tomorrow?". And of demand of money by the staff. But Mr.Nair's innovative idea has in one stroke made things so simple and given a boost to the image of the department. Visakhapatnam may be a small lazy dull place, but among the Central Excise Commissionerates in the country, today, Visakhapatnam has a unique distinction as a place where an assessee can calk into a Central Excise Office with the confidence that after all, all government officers are not bad. Thanks to Mr. Nair!

EXCISE LAW TIMES – 15.03. 1999 – A 132