New Delhi (NVI): The Income Tax Department today launched the faceless income tax appeals system under which all appeals will be finalised in a faceless manner barring cases of major tax evasion, sensitive and search matters, international tax and black money Act, the Ministry of Finance said.
“It may be noted that, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 13 while launching the Faceless Assessment and Taxpayers’ Charter as part of “Transparent Taxation – Honoring the Honest” platform, had announced launching of Faceless Appeals on the birth anniversary of Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhayay,” the Ministry of Finance said in a statement.
Also, in recent years the Income Tax Department has carried out several reforms in direct taxes for the simplification of tax processes and for ease of compliance for the taxpayers, it added.
The statement noted that under the faceless appeals, from now on, in income tax appeals, everything from “e-allocation of appeal, e-communication of notice or questionnaire, e-verification or e-enquiry to e-hearing and finally e-communication of the appellate order,” the entire process of appeals will be beginning online.
It added, the taxpayers now can make submissions from the comfort of their home and save their time and resources as there will be no physical interface between the taxpayers or their counsel and the income tax department.
Moreover, the faceless appeals system will include allocation of cases through Data Analytics and AI under the dynamic jurisdiction with central issuance of notices which would be having Document Identification Number (DIN), the statement read.
Under this dynamic jurisdiction, the draft appellate order will be prepared in one city and will be reviewed in some other city resulting in an objective, fair and just order.
Furthermore, the faceless appeal will provide not only great convenience to the taxpayers but will also ensure just and fair appeal orders and minimise any further litigation. The new system will also be ensuring transparency and accountability in the functioning of the income tax department, the statement said.
As per the data from Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), as on date there is a pendency of almost 4.6 lakh appeals at the level of the Commissioner (Appeals) in the department.
Out of this, about 4.05 lakh appeals, which is about 88 per cent of the total appeals will be handled under the faceless appeal mechanism and almost 85 per cent of the present strength of Commissioners (Appeals) shall be utilised for disposing off the cases under the new mechanism, the statement added.
-RJV
