Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi launches ‘Transparent Taxation’ platform encompassing the below points.
The announcements made in the last budget have now been implemented from today
1. Faceless assessments - Draft assessment order in one city, review in another & finalisation in third city ( serious frauds, black money . benami , search & sensitive matters excluded)
2. Faceless appeals (w.e.f 25 September 2020)
3. Taxpayer charter – Attached herewith
Additional features
· Any assessment other than faceless will be invalid
· No intrusive and survey action by field officers. Only investigation wing and TDS Wing can after approval of officer of the level of Chief Commissioner or above
Key takeaways from the speech
a) Emphasis on the maxim of ‘Minimum Government, Maximum Governance’,
b) PM expresses that the approach of this initiative is to move away from power centric towards people centric administration and focus on “Honouring the Honest”;
c) PM explains that faceless assessments/ appeals will have technology driven interface (e.g. In case of scrutiny assessments, there will be random selection of cases and selection will not be limited to jurisdictional AO),
d) Further the taxpayers’ charter will outline responsibilities and duties of tax officers and transfers/ postings of officers will be done away with;
e) PM however expresses that while there has been a decrease in complexity/ taxes/ litigation and increase in transparency/ compliance/ trust, there is a need to introspect on low base of taxpayers despite growth in tax filers;
f) Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman adds that technology, data analytics and artificial intelligence will be the key drivers of the platform which will ease compliance burden, provide more certainty, bring in fair/ just system while removing physical interface between tax department and taxpayer.
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