Going paperless: CBDT to roll out pilot project on e-assessments

To usher in ease of income-tax assessment, the Narendra Modi-led government is now looking at the concept of going paperless as part of efforts to improve taxpayer services.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has embarked on a new initiative to use ‘electronic mail’ based communication to introduce a paperless environment for carrying assessment proceedings.

A pilot project will soon be launched in five “non-corporate charges” at Delhi, Mumbai,, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad and Chennai. Non-corporate charge would essentially mean those dealing with assessments of individuals, Hindu Undivided Families and partnerships.

Initially,100 cases would be identified for e-hearing in each of these five regions and major part of assessment processing would be conducted in electronic mode, CBDT sources said.

Only those cases that had been taken up for scrutiny will be covered under the pilot project.

Consent of the taxpayers would be obtained in the beginning and cases of only ‘willing taxpayers’ would be considered under the project, sources added.

The move by CBDT to use email-based communication for paperless assessment proceedings would eliminate the necessity for income-tax payers, particularly in smaller cases, to make rounds of income tax offices.

This could also be used where limited issues are involved, as the taxpayer is able to provide details required to the assessing officer without necessitating his physical presence.

Commenting on this decision, Amit Maheshwari, Partner, Ashok Maheshwary & Associates, a chartered accountant firm, said successful implementation of the pilot project would be a major step toward a non-adversarial tax regime.

“Small taxpayers are the ones that have the least resources and thereby face the maximum stress in assessment. We hope this gets extended to smaller multi-national companies having subsidiaries in India as well, since in their case also assessment are a major cause of undue stress”, he said.

Amit Agarwal, Partner, Nangia & Co, another CA firm, said this was a welcome move and individual taxpayer friendly one.

Paperless assessments would reduce the number of visits to the income-tax department and could reduce the mental harassment that one faces during such visits, Agarwal told BusinessLine.

He said the proposed pilot project covered only non-corporates, adding that it would be a welcome move to see it replicated for corporates as well.

Amit Maheshwari, Partner, Ashok Maheshwary & Associates, a CA firm, said that a successful implementation of this pilot project would be a major step by the Government towards non-adversarial tax regime. 

“Small taxpayers are the one which have the least resources and thereby face the maximum stress in assessment. We hope that this gets extended to smaller multi-national companies having subsidiaries in India as well since in their case also assessment are a major cause of undue stress”, he said.

Neeru Ahuja, Partner, Deloitte, Haskins & Sells, said the paperless assessment initiative would save huge amount of time and effort that taxpayers spend in attending meetings in tax offices.

“Having electronic communication with taxpayers is good. However, CBDT has to take sufficient precaution on data security and privacy-related issues”, she said.

As of now, all assessments go through a long process of hearings and submissions, which is painstaking.

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