CBDT to set up National e-Assessment centre in New Delhi

National E-Assessment Centre (NeAC) will be setup in New Delhi as part of the Centre government’s ambitious plan to launch faceless and nameless assessment for income tax payers from October 2019. The order for the creation of NeAC was issued by Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), which frames policy for Income-tax department.

About National E-Assessment Centre (NeAC)

It will be an independent office that will look after the work of e-assessment scheme, which is the recently notified scheme for faceless and nameless assessment for income taxpayers.

The NeAC will exclusively focus on e-assessment and will have 16 officials. It will headed by a Principal Chief Commissioner of Income-tax (PCCIT) as its chief. CBDT has appointed K M Prasad, a 1984-batch Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer as chief or PCCIT of NeAC and Ashish Abrol, a 1993-batch IRS officer as Commissioner or second-in-command of new unit.

NeAC will also serve notices to assesses specifying the issues for selection of their case for assessment and once a response is received from them within a period of 15 days, the centre will allocate case to an assessing officer using an automated system.

About e-assessment Scheme

Centre government had recently notified e-assessment scheme, to facilitate faceless assessment of income-tax returns via completely electronic communication between tax officials and taxpayers. The scheme will be rolled out from ‘Vijayadashami’ on 8 October 2019.

Under the scheme, a person shall not be required to appear either personally or via authorised representative in connection with any proceedings before IT authority at the NeAC or Regional e-assessment Centre (ReAC) or any other unit set up for this purpose under scheme.

In cases where any modification is required, the taxpayer will be provided an opportunity for a personal hearing and such hearing shall be conducted exclusively by video conferencing.

Month: Current Affairs - September, 2019