New Delhi, Aug 5 (KNN) The Income Tax Department has said that it would complete a faceless assessment of all 58,000 plus cases by mid-September . 

Of this, as on date, over 8,700 cases have been disposed of.

“The work has picked up since July, after having addressed all the issues related to infrastructure, manpower, hardware and software. Our target is to finish all the cases by mid-September,” a statement quoting Member, Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) SK Gupta issued on Tuesday said.

''3,130 tax personnel, including 600 IT officers, are involved in implementing the faceless e-assessment scheme,'' the statement added.

The Income Tax Department in October 2019 rolled out the faceless e-assessment scheme that eliminates the physical interface between an assessing officer and an assesses.  Eight cities – Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Pune are covered under the scheme.  Shri Gupta said that the cases taken up for faceless e-assessment include a mix of returns filed by individuals, businesses, MSME as well as big companies.

The National e-Assessment Centre in Delhi is the single point of contact for the taxpayer as well as for all units conducting assessment. It is the NEC which issues notices under Section 143(2) to the assesses for which the assesses is required to respond within 15 days of receipt of notice. Upon the issue of a notice, NEC allocates the case to any assessment unit through an automated allocation system, ensuring anonymity.

The conventional system of scrutiny involved a high level of personal interaction between the taxpayer and the Income Tax Department officials. Under the faceless e-assessment system, the taxpayer would not know by whom his /her return is being assessed or in which city.

“The anonymity and the absence of human interface will go a long way in addressing the issue of harassment as well as curb instances of corruption” Gupta said while adding under the new system, territorial jurisdiction has been replaced with dynamic jurisdiction.