Faceless e-assessment scheme for taxpayers launched

NEW DELHI: You may no longer need to interact with your quintessential assessment officer in person. Taking a big leap towards transparent tax administration, the income tax department on Monday rolled out faceless e-assessment scheme that eliminates physical interface between an assessing officer and an asssessee.

“This is aimed at moving to faceless scrutiny and elimination of human interface,” revenue secretary AB Pandey said while inaugurating the National e-Assessment Centre (NeAC).

The launch of this facility also ends the relevance of geographyfree assessments on the lines of processing of returns.


“Anyone whose case is selected for scrutiny will be able to file all the documents online. Officer assessing a case will also be selected randomly,” Pandey told reporters.

The number of cases that are selected for scrutiny is based on certain criteria, including cases where there are serious discrepancies, he said. To begin with, 58,322 income tax cases will be taken up by the National e-Assessment Centre.

Pandey said the initiative, aimed at improving taxpayer’s ease and convenience, has been achieved in record time.

The income tax department said the scheme will bring in a “paradigm shift” in taxation by eliminating human interface in the income tax assessment system.

The NeAC will facilitate the faceless e-assessment scheme across the country and benefit taxpayers, it added.

Ease of compliance for taxpayers, transparency and efficiency, functional specialisation, improvement in the quality of assessment, risk-based and focussed approach, better monitoring and expeditious disposal of cases are some of the salient features of the new scheme.

A total of 2,686 officials of the I-T department have been deputed for implementation of the scheme.

In her July Budget speech, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced the faceless assessment scheme.

The existing system of scrutiny assessments in the I-T department involves a high-level of personal interaction between the taxpayer and the department, which leads to “certain undesirable practices on the part of tax officials”, she had said.

To eliminate such instances, she had said the scheme of faceless assessment in electronic mode involving no human interface will be launched in a phased manner.

“The setting up of National e-Assessment Centre is a ‘momentous step’ towards the larger objectives of better taxpayer service, reduction of taxpayer grievances in line with prime minister's vision of ‘Digital India' and promotion of ease of doing business,” the department said.