Electronic assessment, also known as e-assessment, online assessment, computer assisted/mediated assessment and computer-based assessment, is the use of information technology in various forms of assessment. Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley, also announced of such scheme in his budget speech on February 1, 2018; which would almost eliminate person-to-person contact in the Tax Department for greater transparency in assessment procedures. In a departure from the old procedures, the Central Board of Direct Taxes has stipulated that the e-assessment of a taxpayer will now be handled by two officers, instead of the current system involving a single assessing officer. This scheme is going to be out shortly.
Deputation of two officials for one assessment case will aid in increased level of monitoring. It is expected that this scheme will be launched in all cities where the department has an officer of the rank of principal commissioner. Further expansion in future to other cities is also in line. In the pilot project launched in 2016, 60,000 limited scrutiny cases and a few full scrutiny cases have been successfully conducted till now. The new regime of e-communication is expected to be voluntary and taxpayers can opt whether to conduct their dealings over e-system or through the existing procedure of manual submission of documents at the tax office. Taxpayers need to register themselves on the official IT web portal post which a confirmation through a text message as well as an e-mail will be made. This functionality to conduct the e-proceedings would be available for all types of notices, questionnaires and letters issued under various sections of the I-T Act, as CBDT has earlier said.
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