• The income tax department rolled out faceless e-assessment scheme that eliminates physical interface between an assessing officer and an assessee.
• The scheme is expected to result in better quality of assessment orders while reducing potential harassment to taxpayers.

About National e-Assessment Centre (NeAC):

• It will be an independent office that will look after the work of e-Assessment scheme.
• There would be a NeAC in Delhi to be headed by Principal Chief Commissioner of Income Tax (Pr.CCIT).
• There are 8 Regional e-Assessment Centres (ReAC) set up at Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata Ahmedabad, Pune, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.
• Each ReAC will be headed by Chief Commissioner of Income Tax (CCIT).
• Cases for the specified work shall be assigned by the NeAC to different units by way of automated allocation systems.

About Faceless e-Assessment:

• Government had recently notified e-Assessment scheme to facilitate faceless assessment of income tax returns.
• It will be completely based on electronic communication between tax officials and tax payers.
• Tax payers will receive notices on their registered emails as well as on registered accounts on the web portal with real time alert.
• The alerts will be sent by way of SMS on tax payer's registered mobile number, specifying the issues for which their cases have been selected for scrutiny.

Benefits of Faceless Assessment:

• NeAC eliminates human interface between Assessing Officer and Assessee
• New System optimises the utilisation of resources through economies of scale
• NeAC introduces team based assessment with dynamic jurisdiction
• Ease of compliance for taxpayers
• Brings transparency and efficiency, thus improves quality of assessment and monitoring
• Functional specialisation as only one agency dealing with faceless assessment
• Expeditious disposal of cases
• Standardisation and quality management