VAT details to be put on the Internet

Traders will be able to obtain verification for inter-state trading or any information relating to Value Added Tax rules on the Internet from April 1, through the National Tax Information Exchange System being developed by ICICI Infotech.

"Presently there is no way for a trader in a state dealing with a trader from another state from validating. We will address this problem through the system," Manoj Kunkalienkar, executive director, ICICI Infotech told Business Standard.

He said TINXSYS was expected to remove many of the problems associated with tracking of inter-state trade.

It would contain a database of all registered traders under VAT. It would also contain interstate trade transactions related information and provide a platform for selling dealers to verify the validity of the registration number (Taxpayer Identification Number) of the buyer in an interstate transaction.

"We have already blocked the domain addresses www.tinxyx.com and www.vinxyx.com for the purpose. In addition to this we are also talking to the government to have an official domain address of 'gov.in', which provides a link to this site," Kunkalienkar said.

Kunkalienkar said the domain address would be operational from April 1, 2005. However the domain would initially contain data of 12 states to which have been identified for the first phase of the pilot project. The 12 states, include Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Gujarat, Assam, Delhi, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab.

"Over time, TINXSYS is expected to develop into the backbone for overall changes in commercial tax system across India and eventually integrate the same nationally," he said.

The website would have a query section where traders can e-mail any queries pertaining to VAT rules, he said adding that the company was readying the data centres in Chennai and Mumbai to make the site operational for VAT.

The project for the system was awarded to ICICI Infotech by the empowered committee of state finance ministers on VAT. The project is on a Build, Own, Operate and Transfer basis and is expected to be completed over a period of 5 years.

The project comprises of two phases: Phase 1 involves pilot implementations in the 12 states, which will be completed by March end while Phase-II of the project would involve implementation of the project across all the other remaining Indian states and Union Territories.

As part of the project, ICICI Infotech and its consortium partners would provide solutions in the areas of software development, data warehousing, data migration, country-wide networking, data centre, application support, facilities management, call centre and helpdesk services.