NEW DELHI: The income tax department on Monday launched a faceless e-assessment scheme to eliminate interface between an assessing officer and a taxpayer as announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
Launched by Revenue Secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey, the scheme is aimed at improving transparency and convenience.
“This will improve taxpayers' ease and convenience,” Pandey said.
In the first phase, the tax department has selected 58,322 cases for scrutiny under the faceless e-assessment scheme 2019 and the e-notices have been served before September 30 for the cases of Assessment Year 2018-19.
A total of 2,686 IT officials have been deputed for the implementation of the scheme.
“Anyone whose case is selected for scrutiny will be able to file all the documents online. Now, the officer who is going to assess the case will also be selected randomly,” Pandey said, adding the number of cases that are selected for scrutiny is based on certain criteria, including cases where there are serious discrepancies.
The taxpayers have been advised to check their registered e-filing accounts and e-mails and have been requested to reply within 15 days.
The tax department expects that with the ease of compliance for taxpayers, the cases would be disposed of expeditiously.