Before July 1, 2017, service tax was an independent tax charge paid by the service provider. After it got abolished in 2017, it was replaced by Goods and Services Tax (GST) and got subsumed along with other indirect taxes. Service Tax was an indirect tax charged by the central government on specific services carried out by services providers in the country. It was introduced under the Finance Act, 1994 and was paid by the final consumers availing taxable services.
Service Tax E-Payment Procedure
As service tax was paid by through GAR 7 wherein the service providers were required to visit the branch and paid the tax. Government of India introduced the Service Tax e-Payment facility to service providers for making tax payments.
The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) launched a web-based payment gateway for the service providers to pay taxes online commonly called as Electronic Accounting System in Excise and Service Tax (EASIEST) in 2007. This payment gateway offered a simple process to fill-in the details and make tax payments. The process is followed through service tax e-payment NSDL mode.
Below given are the steps through which one can pay service tax through EASIEST-
Step 1: Visit the NSDL-EASIEST website at https://cbec-easiest.gov.in/EST/ and select the option, E-Payment (Excise & Service Tax)
Step 2: Fill-in the 15-digt Assessee Code allotted by Jurisdictional Commissionerate to make tax payment
Step 3: An online check will be carried out to validate the Assessee Code you have entered
Step 4: If the Assessee Code is valid, then the details of assessee such as Name, Address, Commissionerate Code and so on will be displayed on the screen.
Step 5: As you enter the assessee code, the system will automatically select the type of payment you are looking for such as Service Tax or Excise Duty
Step 6: You are required to select ‘Select Accounting Codes for Service Tax’
Step 7: After the validation received from the data in the NSDL central system, a drop-down menu will be displayed with names of different banks. Select your bank you wish to make your Service Tax e-payment
Step 8: Once you have entered your details, a confirmation screen will be displayed and it will redirect you to the netbanking site of the bank you have selected
Step 9: Log-in to your netbanking and enter the details required and make the payment
Step 10: Once you have paid the amount, a service tax e-payment challan verification number will appear on the screen. The details will also include Challan Identification Number and the name of the bank through which you had made payment
Step 11: Now you can download the challan counterfoil from the bank’s website. This counterfoil contains all the information about the payment and this will act as an acknowledgement or proof
Through service tax login e-payment as mentioned above offers an easy process to make payments.
After you have made the payments, you can view your e-payment of service tax challan enquiry at https://onlineservices.cbec-easiest.gov.in/csi/indexl. In case the challan is not available on the given site address, you can lodge the complaint through sending an email to easiest@nsdl.co.in
Authorized Banks to Collect Service Tax
Pr. Chief Controller of Accounts (Pr. CCA) / RBI have authorized the following 27 banks to collect Central Excise duty and Service tax through internet banking (e-payment) for all the Commissionerates.
The below given table includes the banks that are authorized to collect service tax:
Name Of Bank | |
Allahabad Bank | Oriental Bank of Commerce |
Bank of India | State Bank of Bikaner& Jaipur |
State Bank of Hyderabad | |
Central Bank | State Bank of Mysore |
Corporation Bank | State Bank of Patiala |
Dena Bank | State Bank of Travancore |
HDFC Bank | Syndicate Bank |
ICICI Bank | |
IDBI Bank | Union Bank of India |
United Bank of India | |
| Vijaya Bank | |
Service Tax E-Payment: FAQs
Any firm, individual or company who offer services that are not included in the negative lists offered by the government are liable to pay services tax in India.
Yes. You can pay your service tax online by simply visiting the website at https://cbec-easiest.gov.in/EST/ and enter all the details required.
In case you didn’t want to pay service online, government offers the option to pay service tax manually. For this, they introduced GAR 7 which is a challan used for making service tax payment manually.
There are 27 banks who have been authorized to collect service tax by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Pr. Chief Controller of Accounts (Pr. CCA).
The official website of CBIC is https://www.cbic.gov.in/
