For faceless tax scrutiny to be successful, tax rules ought to be drafted with clarity

Unfortunately, in our Indian tax system, legal disputes ensue because tax laws are not drafted with clarity and are hence misused by tax officers. Such litigation adds to cases in the country’s already overburdened courts.

nirmala sitharaman, nirmaNirmala Sitharaman, income tax, income tax collections, Nirmala Sitharaman on tax collection, direct tax revenue, Taxpayer budget 2019, TDS Budget 2019, Budget announcements taxpayers, Income tax slabs budget 2019, indian expressala sitharaman budget, union budget 2019, union budget sitharaman, gdp figure budget, sitharaman finance minister, — Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. (Express Photo: Prem Nath Pandey)

An important announcement in the finance minister’s budget speech pertains to the introduction of a system of faceless tax scrutiny assessment. Such an assessment is commendable because in the first place, it means that the assessing officer would not know the taxpayer’s identity and would use only the online filing, and technology platform, to scrutinise the details of the tax payer. Second, there won’t be any personal interaction between the tax payer and the tax officer. This step aims to eliminate corruption in the tax department. However, there are questions over whether faceless scrutiny can end the harassment of taxpayers.