E-payment of Government Revenue — Cut off time for e-payment transactions - Service Tax - Coord. II/6-9/EASeR/ 414

E-payment of Government Revenue — Cut off time for e-payment transactions Pr. Chief Controller of Accounts, C.B.E. C., Letter No. Coord. II/6-9/EASeR/ 414, dated 16-2-2008 Subject : Cut off time for e-Payment transactions pertaining to Government Revenue. In the meeting held in Mumbai with the representatives of the banks on 5th October, 2007, one of the points for consideration was cut off time (end of day) to determine the date of payment by an assessee in respect of e-Payment which has not been specifically defined. It has now been decided with the approval of Controller General of Accounts, Ministry of Finance, Department of Expenditure, that e-Payment received upto 8.00 PM may be treated as received on that day and payment received after this limit may be treated as received on the next working day. The permissible time period for deposit of tax receipts into Government Account in RBI, CAS, Nagpur, delayed remittance thereof and levy of penal interest etc. would be reckoned with reference to the above norm. Further, attention is invited to this office letter No. Coord.II/6-8/HPC/255 dated 10-10-2007 regarding issue of cyber receipt as acknowledgement of e-Payment under EASIEST. In addition to the fields such as CIN number, payment details, unique transaction number etc. mentioned in the said letter, it must be ensured that the date and time of transactions is also clearly indicated in the cyber receipt. These are required to be quoted to avoid any legal issues related to credit to be given to the assessee in terms of the Central Excise Rules, 2002 as amended vide notification date 1st March, 2003, whereby the date of presentation of cheque/Demand Draft is treated as date of payment of tax, though the cheque/draft so tendered at the bank gets cleared on a subsequent day. You are, therefore, requested to issue necessary instructions in this regard to all nominated banks.