The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by the prime minister Narendra Modi has approved Rs 2,256 crore for ‘Project SAKSHAM’, a new indirect tax network (Systems Integration) of the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC).
The total project cost involved is Rs 2,256 crore which will be incurred over a period of seven years.
Project SAKSHAM will help in implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST), extension of the Indian Customs Single Window Interface for Facilitating Trade (SWIFT) and other taxpayer-friendly initiatives under Digital India and Ease of Doing Business of CBEC.
The implementation strategy for the project will be to ensure readiness of CBEC’s IT systems by April, 1, 2017, when GST is to be introduced. The upgrade of the IT systems will be carried out while keeping the existing tax-payer services running.
