Enthused by the success of OLTAS, the Central Board of Excise and Customs, in consultation with the Reserve Bank, has introduced the EASIEST (Electronic Accounting System in Excise and Service Tax) project which envisages a comprehensive e-payment module that can be utilised by the banks' corporate customers. The pilot project for this is in an advanced stage of completion.
Acceptance by the Government of electronic challans, based on formats to be available on their web sites, would make the process tax-payer friendly. It would also substantially reduce paper usage, provide for Straight Through Processing and obviate errors arising from the reconciliation process, wrong data entry, etc.