Delhi Sales Tax department wants to become your DOST

The Delhi Sales Tax department has successfully
completed the first phase of computerization and has embarked upon an ambitious
second phase. Titled DOST (Delhi Online Sales Tax)--the friend--the
computerization project initially tried to internalize the technology with the
various sections, taking to it with required training and awareness creation. It
has been proposed to make the department fully online by June 2001.

"We first tried to help ourselves in simplifying
various tasks that were becoming cumbersome so that we can extend the same to
our dealer friends," said Manish Gupta, Secretary, Information Technology
and Additional Commissioner, Sales Tax, who has been the driving force behind
the project for the last four years.

The computerization started way back in 1996, when the
Dr Raja J Chelliah committee recommended the computerization of the department,
on a priority basis with the maintenance of a Dealers Masters Information
database and the submission of the sales tax returns in computer floppies by
dealers. The reason for the sales tax department to be one of the first
government department to implement computerization to a great extent was the
dire need that increasing number of dealers registered with the department had
posed.

"Currently there are only 1.5 lakh registered
dealers, but it has the potential to increase to 15 lakh. It is to simplify this
cumbersome task of maintaining the documents of these 15 lakh dealers and to
minimize the space that would be swallowed by their respective documents that
the computerization was initiated," explained Gupta.

The actual computerization started in 1997, with Phase I
of the project, which saw the procurement of 200 computers for some 1,500
employees of the department, of which 400 were peons. Another 250 computers were
brought in within a time difference of eight months and the employees were given
basic training in the usage of mouse, keyboard and e-mailing. "We loaded
games on all the computers and asked our people to play games so that they get
familiarized with the systems," said Gupta. The department then withdrew
all typewriters from the department and encouraged people to communicate through
e-mail.

All the computers in the department are connected
through an internal network and has a strong e-mailing system, in addition to
the Lotus Worksheet on which the calculations are made. It was in September
1999, that the first application software in the module Returns Processing
System was introduced in the department. This module facilitated the compilation
of the returns filed with the department and the generation of the receipt, so
that the distinction between the dealers who had filed the returns and those who
have not is easily available.

"This module has brought down the manual work to
such an extent that the work which used to take about two months is being
completed in three to four days and the receipt is given to the dealers
instantaneously," said a visibly satisfied Gupta. He added that the first
time implementation had developed certain hitches due to which, the work took
one month.

March 2000 saw the implementation of the next software
module, the Tax Accounting System, where all the accounting is done in the back
end by the system administrator and the ward wise and dealer wise list is
generated. This helped the department in the verification of the taxes credited
on various banks and thus made the assessment easier. The Dealer Information
module was next to be installed for the preparation of a Dealers Masters
Information database, which would be available on Intranet for perusal for
practically all purposes for the employees.

The Forms Control module and the Enforcement Information
module was implemented in August 2000, which simplified verification of the
various forms issued by the department to the selling dealer. This has done away
with the whole process of manually going from one STO to another for the form
verification and enforcement. The Law and Judicial Module, which automatically
registers the appeals and disposes them in the way the disposing authority
wants, was brought in by January 2001.

The Assessment Information System, which had to be the
last to be made functional, as the assessment always comes in the last, was the
most complicated one. It involved the assessment of all the modules that has
been entered and has been implemented in only two wards. Gupta informed that the
implementation has developed certain problems, due to which it has not been
extended to other wards.

The second phase of the computerization program includes
more ambitious projects such as a comprehensive interactive website for the
department, initiation of official communication between the department and the
dealers through e-mail and the online filing of tax returns through the
Internet. "But I am a little wary of doing financial transactions over the
Net, where there is ample opportunity to manipulate the documents. So right now
we are concentrating only on the non-financial part," opined Gupta.

He said that the department is looking at publishing the
database of payments made by the dealers on the Net as well as the case list, so
that dealers can know before hand when their case is up for hearing. "I am
cautious of being too online," said Gupta. He added that the online
transactions would be done once the signatory authorities are sufficiently
authorized, which according to him would take another two years. The department
already has its website www.delhisalestax.com
in both English as well as Hindi.

There is also a proposal for the online submission of
the sales tax registration and amendment applications and the collection of tax
through the RBI's electronic clearing scheme. It has also been proposed to setup
information collection points at various location on Delhi border as well as
information kiosks at the main markets in capital and at the nine district
offices to facilitate the dealers in undertaking IT operations.

The application software has been developed by Mastek
and has Oracle at its backend. The total investment incurred in the
implementation of Phase I has been Rs 8.5 crore and Phase II is supposed to cost
another Rs 1.3 crore.