Prime Minister, Narendra Modi has introduced a new platform for filing income tax returns to ensure a transparent tax environment by eliminating physical interface between the tax authorities and tax payers. After the launch of the transparent taxation platform Modi said, “Our effort is that our tax system should be seamless, painless and faceless.”
This new system is called “Transparent Taxation- Honor the Honest”.
“Faceless assessment and taxpayers charter come in force from today, whereas faceless appeal service will be available from September 25,” the prime minister said, adding that “faceless teams across India” will be checking IT returns and will redress grievances. The income tax department will adopt a ‘taxpayer chart’ which outlines the rights and responsibilities of both the tax payers and tax officers.
Faceless appeals and faceless assessments will be done. Under this system, appeals will be randomly allotted to any officer in the country. The identity of the officer deciding the appeal will remain unknown. “These teams will be chosen randomly and can come from any city,” the prime minister said on Thursday. “Till now, all tax-related matters in a city are dealt with by the Income Tax department of that city. Now with the help of technology, scrutiny will be done by a randomly chosen IT officer anywhere in the country,” the PM added.
PM Modi said the initiative was to reduce the presence of government in the life of taxpayers and for that, the faceless regime will ensure that scrutiny would be randomized. The prime minister also appealed to those who are able to pay tax but are not paying taxes to come forward with self-motivation. “Amidst all these efforts, the number of people filing income tax returns has increased by about two and a half crores in the last 6-7 years. But it is also true that in a country of 130 crores it is still very less.”
The scheme aims to eliminate the interface between the taxpayer and the income tax department. Under this system, a taxpayer may belong to a particular city but the assessment order the review and the finalization will take place in different cities. Cases will be automatically allotted on a random basis. There will be no need for the taxpayer to visit the income tax office or the officer. The appellate decision will be team-based and reviewed. Any assessment, other than the exceptions outside the faceless scheme, will be invalid.
NEWS REPORTED BY:
VRIDHI BHAGNARI.
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