The government has rolled out measures aimed at making the income tax collection process more transparent, curbing harassment of taxpayers, and providing a faceless mechanism for assessment and appeals. Launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the transparent tax portal also coincides with the unveiling of the tax charter.

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First, the government has unveiled the faceless assessment scheme. It aims to eliminate the taxpayer-taxman interface and curb overreach by officials. The scheme also does away with territorial jurisdiction. This means that a taxpayer’s assessment order, review, and finalisation will take place in cities where he or she is not located. The Prime Minister says that the programme will give the taxpayer a sense of ''fairness'' and ''fearlessness''.

Secondly, the government will also be rolling out the faceless appeals system from September 25. Under this, an appeal case will be randomly allotted to any tax officer across India and his identity shall remain unknown.

However, serious frauds, major tax evasion, sensitive and search matters have been kept out of the ambit of faceless appeals. The system also excludes International Taxation and Black Money Act & Benami Property Act.

Thirdly, as promised in the Union Budget, the taxpayers' charter is finally here. It lists out the commitments of the tax department towards the taxpayer. The charter says that the tax department shall treat taxpayers as honest unless there is a reason to believe otherwise. It also articulates taxpayers' rights and responsibilities and sets out the government's expectations from them. There are only three other countries in the world that have enshrined the rights of the taxpayers - Canada, the USA, and Australia.

The question that we are asking is - are all of these measures enough to give a fillip to India’s tax base? Just so, as you know, there were 8.45 crore taxpayers in FY19. Also, what message does this send across the tax department?

CNBC-TV18 discusses that and more with tax experts - Rajiv Memani, chairman and managing partner for EY India, Dinesh Kanabar, the CEO of Dhruva Advisors and Hitesh Gajaria, partner at KPMG.

First Published:Aug 13, 2020 6:34 PM IST