Govt Modifies E-Assessment Scheme After PM Unveils Taxpayers' Charter

Business Standard Govt modifies e-assessment scheme after PM unveils Taxpayers' Charter

The nomenclature of the scheme has now been changed to "Faceless Assessment Scheme" from the existing "E-assessment Scheme".

The government modified some aspects of the e-assessment scheme introduced last year after Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled the Taxpayers' Charter.

The nomenclature of the scheme has now been changed to "Faceless Assessment Scheme" from the existing "E-assessment Scheme".

The most important aspect of the new procedure is the coverage of "best judgment assessment" in case of a non-co-operative assessee. Earlier, it could only be done by the jurisdictional assessing officer. Jurisdictional officers may sometimes be familiar with taxpayers and contact and convince them to cooperate with the assessment proceedings, especially in cases where taxpayers would miss the notices inadvertently.

Now, even in these cases, assessment can be done on instructions of the national e-assessment centre (NeAC).

"Thus, taxpayers would need to be extra careful to comply with the notices issues by the NeAC as missing of notices may result in issuance of adverse bestjudgement orders, without the tax officer contacting, convincing them to complete the proceedings," said Shailesh Kumar, partner at Nangia & Co LLP.