Excise, service taxpayers to migrate to GST portal by Jan 31

New Delhi: As it targets April 1 rollout of Goods and Services Tax (GST), the CBEC today asked assessees to migrate to the new tax payment portal by January 31. The tax department has also made it mandatory for central excise duty and service taxpayers to obtain a valid PAN number before they can be migrated to the GST set-up.

The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) has started migrating central excise and service tax assessees to GST portal and has launched a 24-hour helpline number for assisting taxpayers in migration.

"As part of its efforts to ensure implementation of GST by 1st April, 2017, CBEC has taken steps to ensure that its existing taxpayers are migrated to GST in a simple, user-friendly and smooth manner," an official statement said.

All existing central excise/ service tax assessees are requested to migrate as early as possible, latest by January 31, 2017, it said. Once the existing registered taxpayers login to CBEC's Web Portal www.aces.gov.in, a facility will be given in a secure manner to access the provisional login ID and password given by Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN).

Thereafter, using the same, they can log in to GST Portal (www.gst.gov.in) to fill the required fields and submit scanned documents. "However, if they have already initiated the process of migration to GST as a VAT assessee under State Commercial Tax department, no further action is necessary," it added.

If the existing Central Excise/Service Tax Registration Code does not have PAN, then PAN has to be obtained from Income Tax Department and the registration details have to be updated in the ACES portal www.aces.gov.in, CBEC said.

The tax department has made available a 24x7 helpdesk (Toll free no: 1800-1200-232, email: cbecmitra.helpdesk@ icegate.gov.in) for the purpose of assisting existing assessees.

GSTN also has a Help desk number: 0124-4688999 and GSTN email address is: help@gst.gov.in. A step-by-step Taxpayers User guide for Migration is available at www.aces.gov.in and at www.cbec.gov.in, the statement said.

CBEC is also sending e-mails/recorded telephonic messages to all registered assessees requesting them to migrate to GST. Outreach programmes such as awareness workshops/training are being organised all over India at the Commissionerates and Divisional offices of CBEC.