CBDT dedicates two-thirds of workforce to faceless assessment scheme

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has dedicated two-thirds of its workforce towards the faceless assessment scheme, launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 13 this year.

The National e-Assessment Centre (NeAC), headed by principal chief commissioner of Income Tax (I-T) has constituted a team consisting of 32 commissioners, 96 principal commissioners, 261 assistant and deputy commissioners, and 1,274 I-T officers, a senior I-T officer told ANI.

Besides NeAC officials, 34 members from the Regional e-Assessment Centre (ReAC) will also be deployed. This is up from the eight dedicated ReAC members earlier, the official added.

Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, New Delhi and Pune had one ReAC each in 2019. These were increased to four in Kolkata, five in Mumbai and three in New Delhi, besides the existing centres after PM Modi launched the scheme in August, the report said.

New centres have also been approved by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Ahmedabad, Bareilly, Bengaluru, Dehradun, Indore, Jodhpur, Nashik, Panaji, Panchkula, Ranchi, Shimla, Thane, Trichi, Vadodara, Vijayawada and Vishakhapatnam, it added.

The CBDT appointed 1984 batch IRS officer Krishna Mohan Prasad, as the first Principal Chief Commissioner of Income Tax (PrCCIT) of NeAC in September 2019.

It then had 619 officers, including four chief commissioners, 25 principal commissioners, one commissioner, 144 additional commissioners, 163 deputy commissioners and 281 I-T officers.

Three months after set-up, the NeAC conducted its first successful faceless assessment on January 20, 2020. Since then, till July-end over 7,000 cases have been disposed through faceless assessment, it added.

The faceless assessment scheme is aimed at making taxation transparent and all cases, except those assigned to Central charges - such as serious frauds, major tax evasion, sensitive and search matters, black money and Benami cases, and International Tax charges will now be conducted via faceless assessment.

Phase 1 of the scheme was inaugurated on October 7, 2019.