The Central Board of Direct Taxes ( CBDT ) Chairman PC Mody on Thursday expressed hope that the body will able to achieve the target of tax collection given to them at the beginning of this year.
“At the beginning of this year, we were given a target of 13.35 lakh crore, out of which we have already collected six lakh crore. With that, we have also refunded 20 per cent more as compared to last year. I am hopeful that we will reach the set target,” he said while speaking to ANI.
Stressing that there is a clear policy of the government to give more and more comfort to the taxpayer, Mody said a new process of assessment has been envisaged — faceless assessment.
“Under this process, there is the provision of your process scrutiny being done in a randomised and anonymous manner so that there is no contact between taxpayer and tax officer and whatever are the issues before he is investigated fairly,” he said adding that infrastructure for this has already been provided.
“As of now, it has just begun. By the end of this week, the responses from taxpayers will be sent to assessment units and after that, the process will begin,” he said.
Recently the Central Government has launched the Faceless E-Assessment Scheme. In the first phase, the Income Tax Department has selected 58,322 cases for scrutiny under the faceless e-Assessment Scheme 2019 and the e-notices have been served before 30th of September 2019 for the cases of Assessment Year 2018-19. The taxpayers have been advised to check their registered e-filing accounts/ email ids and have been requested to furnish a reply within 15 days. The Department hopes that with the ease of compliance for taxpayers, the cases would be disposed of expeditiously.
The new initiative of faceless assessment is expected to increase ease of compliance for taxpayers as the cost and anxiety of taxpayers are likely to be greatly reduced. No human interface with the Department would be a game-changer. This is another initiative by CBDT in the field of ease of compliance for our taxpayers.
