Indeed this was a draconian feature of the otherwise good scheme. But the Government, as is its wont, chose to throw the baby with the bathwater. However, the Finance Bill, 2008 in a belated effort rescues the baby and provides for practically the same regime of summary assessment with effect from April 1, 2008.

It is good that the original dispensation has been sanitised, most importantly by deleting the invidious 20 per cent penal tax that was the sore point with the assessees, though courts, at times giving an inkling of their discomfiture, did not strike down this egregiously offensive part of the regime.

Apparently, the government of the day bowed to public pressure but erred by capitulating completely, whereas all it had to do was to do away with the punitive tax while retaining the scheme. Be that as it may, the seven year itch, as it were, alas, has brought back the regime duly sensitised and sanitised.

There is a criticism in some quarters that the scheme should not have been brought back so hastily given the fact that it talks of central processing software to be pressed into service soon for the purpose of identifying the apparent mistakes and inconsistencies in the returns which is not yet ready.

The critics draw a parallel between the many-times botched attempt to do away with TDS certificates. TDS certificates were proposed to be done away with right from 2005 but in the very next year the idea was postponed by two years and the Finance Bill, 2008 has once again postponed the denouement to 2010.

Indeed the repeated postponement was necessitated by the departmental interconnectivity of the tax information system not being put in place reflecting poorly on government’s ability to adhere to schedules.

But then the parallel is misplaced. The new summary assessment scheme’s cornerstone indeed is dispassionate prima facie adjustments through computer software that would eliminate human subjectivity, which bedevilled the earlier scheme, completely. But then nowhere does the new scheme say that it will not go ahead until and unless the software is put in place. Till such time it is put in place, one therefore has to put up with the element of arbitrariness and subjectivity in summary assessments which adjustments being made by assessing officers implies and portends.

Warts and all such a system is preferable to the present dispensation where the assessing officers’ hands are tied even when glaring mistakes are staring at their face from the returns. Another criticism of the computerised summary assessment is the software setting off a false alarm by reason of the fact that unlike a human being it doesn’t have the power of discrimination. Modern tools were never meant to completely supplant human intervention. Therefore the proposed software should be used as an aid for summary assessment.

It is good that the original dispensation has been sanitised, most importantly by deleting the invidious 20 per cent penal tax that was the sore point with the assesses.

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