Cheque clearance holding up tax payments

INDORE: Delay in clearance of non-CTS (cheque truncation system) cheques by banks are holding up tax payments adding to woes of traders and entrepreneurs. Non CTS cheques are being sent to Mumbai, Chennai and New Delhi for clearance adding to delay. Moreover, clearing of such cheques is taking place only thrice a week, further delaying the process.
A city-based entrepreneur Ranjan Mimani said, he had tough time wooing bankers to clear his CTS cheque worth Rs 1.50 crore.He had to get his job done through his contacts at RBI. "Even then it took five days for clearance, which affected the functioning of my company," he said.
In fact, tax practitioners are also facing hiccups. A city-based chartered accountant Rajesh Mehta said, "Lots of problem are being faced for sales tax challan payments. Earlier, only SBI was authorised to do so for online payment of taxes. Of late, ICICI Bank has also been authorized. It means that any person having an account in ICICI Bank will be allowed to make online payment of tax through it. Still, there is a problem that a person has to have an account in either SBI or ICICI for online payment of sales tax challan. Unlike income tax department, commercial taxes department has authorised only two banks. Hence we demand that it must be extended to all nationalised and private banks."
A local tax consultant R S Goyal said, "Most businessmen have their account with state-owned banks only. Secondly, everyone doesn't feel comfortable paying taxes online. Need of the hour is that traders be allowed to pay their tax dues through plastic money in form of debit card or credit card."
State Bank of India, Union Bank of India, Central Bank of India, Vijaya Bank, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, Punjab National Bank, Bank of India, UCO Bank, Allahabad Bank
kumud.das@timesgroup.com