The Income-tax officials were given a detailed presentation about the faceless tax system and its implementation through the online platform. The top brass of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) told tax department officials that the faceless assessment system would not result in any large-scale staff movement and would be enforced without exhausting the existing resources at the department’s disposal, said the finance ministry sources.
Wednesday’s(19.08.2020) meeting was intended to dispel any misgivings or apprehensions about the scheme among I-T (Income – Tax) officials. The board chairman mention in the online meeting about the need for the new system to turn the image of tax officials around from what is currently perceived with negative undertones. Recently, the Income-Tax employee associations had written to the Board that the majority of the workforce was left out because of the possible disruption to the employees caused by the department’s restructuring due to the implementation of the faceless evaluation scheme.
On Thursday 13 August 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the ‘Transparent Taxation-Honouring the Honest Platform aimed at reforming and simplifying the existing tax system. He stated during the launch video conference that the platform has major reforms such as faceless assessment, faceless appeal, and charter of taxpayers. From September 25, faceless appeal service will come into operation. The regime seeks to eliminate the interface between taxpayers and the tax office, which is expected to cut the official’s discretionary power while also limiting the taxpayers’ opportunity to enter into illegal arrangements with their assessors.
According to some sources, the I-T (Income Tax) department officials received a detailed presentation on faceless assessment and taxpayers’ charter and their proposed implementation during the online meeting. They were also told about the role and constitution of the National E-Assessment Center (NeAC) and Regional E-Assessment Centers (ReACs), including manpower redeployment and reorganization. The CBDT department recently announced approximately 30 evaluation centres for the newly implemented faceless assessment scheme notified by the Government. There are 20 cities chosen to build these 30 evaluation centres.
Furthermore, it was suggested that the department should follow a demand management approach to recognize and clean up pending demands so that the taxpayers could be supplied with the appropriate demand. According to a source, as part of cleaning up of the demand, priority should be given to all pending rectifications and appeal effects, as this was also one of the key factors for transparent tax administration.
