CBDT has issued an Order under section 119 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 Act to direct that all the assessment orders shall hereafter be passed by National e-Assessment Centre (NeAC) through the Faceless Assessment Scheme 2019.
It further states that any assessment order which is not in conformity of this Order shall be treated as non-est and shall be deemed to have never been passed.
The Hon’ble Finance Minister in his 2019 budget speech on 05.07.2019 announced the scheme of Faceless Assessment which was accordingly notified by CBDT on 12.09.2019 and a pilot project thereof was started on 07.10.2019. The main objective thereof is to impart greater efficiency, transparency and accountability. It is also intended to eliminate the physical interface between the taxpayer and the tax officers.
Under the Faceless Assessment Scheme, 2019 all such cases shall be selected through the system using data analytics and artificial intelligence. It will have dynamic jurisdiction with automated random allocation of cases. In other words, the jurisdiction over such cases shall not vest with one particular officer but keep on changing as per the phase-wise requirement of the assessment proceedings. The cases would be randomly allocated all over the country to different assessing officers. Under the scheme, a particular assessment would be completed by 4 different units viz. assessment unit, technical unit, verification unit and review unit. The assessment unit would identify issues, seek information and analyse material to frame draft assessment orders, the verification unit will conduct inquiry, examine books of account, examine witnesses and record statements through video conferencing, the technical unit will provide advice on legal, accounting, forensic, information technology, valuation, transfer pricing and data analytics issues and the review unit will review the draft assessment order prepared by the assessment unit i.e. whether material evidence is brought on record, points of facts and law are incorporated, application of judicial decisions is considered as well as the arithmetic correctness of the computation part of the assessment order.
The NeAC would assign cases to the assessment units, verification units and technical units through an automatic allocation system. It would then select draft assessment orders for review and allocate it to the review unit through an automated allocation system. NeAC would also provide an opportunity to the taxpayer concerned before finalising the order. After finalising the assessment order, all electronic records would be transferred to the jurisdictional AO for post-assessment work such as the recovery of demand and levy of penalty etc.
In total 58319 cases were selected under the Faceless Assessment Scheme, 2019 in 8 cities i.e. Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata and Delhi.
Read the full text of the Order dated 13.08.2020 by the CBDT issued u/s 119
F No. 187/3/2020-ITA-I
Government of India
Ministry of Finance
Department of Revenue
(Central Board of Direct Taxes)
*****
North Block, New Delhi - 110001.
Dated the 13th August, 2020
ORDER
Subject: Order under section 119 of the Income-tax Act, 1961
With the launch of various e-governance initiatives, Income-tax Department is moving toward total computerization of its work. This has led to a significant improvement in delivery of services and has also brought greater transparency in the functioning of the tax- administration.
2. In order to ensure that all the assessment orders are passed through the Faceless Assessment Scheme, 2019, the Board in exercise af powers under section 119 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 hereby directs that all the assessment orders shall hereafter be passed by National ¢-Asacsament Centre through the Faceless Assessment Scheme, 2019, except as provided hereunder:-
i) Assessment orders in cases assigned to Central Charges.
ii) Assessment orders in cases assigned to International Tax Charges.
3. Any assessment order which is not in conformity with Para-2 above, shall be treated as non-est and shall be deemed to have never been passed.
4. This order shall come into force with effect from the 13th day of August, 2020.
5. The Hindi version of this order shall follow.
(Prajna Paramita)
Director to the Government of India
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