With India moving towards a goods and services tax (GST) soon, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (Icai) has decided to facilitate the finance ministry’s e-initiative of filing service tax and excise duties returns.“Icai and the Central Board of Excise and Customs have signed a memorandum of understanding on 31 March whereby Icai will provide facilitation centres across the country for e-filing of returns and documents to central excise and service tax assesses. The filings have to to be complete by 25 April,” Icai president Amarjit Chopra told reporters on Tuesday. All taxes above Rs10 lakh have to be e-filed and Chopra said that around 20,000 facilitation centres would be opened, involving 40,000-45,000 chartered accountants. He also said a substantial chunk of business is expected to come from smaller cities.
