While presenting the Budget for 2020-21,
the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that, the Income Tax Act
will be amended to allow faceless appeals against tax orders on lines of
faceless assessment.
The Government is committed to bringing
in transformational changes so that maximum governance is provided with minimum
government. In order to impart greater efficiency, transparency and accountability
to the assessment process, a new faceless assessment scheme has already been
introduced.
The Finance Minister said that there are 4,83,000 direct tax
cases pending in various appellate forums i.e. Commissioner (Appeals), ITATs,
High Courts and the Supreme Court. Referring to several measures taken to
reduce tax litigations.
Presently, most of the functions of the Income Tax Department
starting from the filing of the return, processing of returns, issuance of
refunds and assessment are performed in the electronic mode without any human
interface.
In order to take the reforms initiated by the Department to
the next level and to eliminate human interface, Finance Minister proposed to
amend the Income Tax Act so as to enable Faceless appeals on the lines of
Faceless assessment.
This scheme is part of the government to
reduce human interference in the assessment and scrutiny of tax returns that in
turn could help to reduce chances of corruption. The finance minister had
introduced an enabling provision for the scheme in the law through Finance Act
of 2018.
The Finance Minister said that there are 4,83,000 direct tax cases pending in various appellate forums i.e. Commissioner (Appeals), ITATs, High Courts and the Supreme Court. Referring to several measures taken to reduce tax litigations.