The Central Board of Direct Taxes vide its notification dated 12th January 2021 has published the Faceless Penalty Scheme, 2021. The penalty under this Scheme shall be imposed in respect of such territorial area, or persons or class of persons, or income or class of income or cases or class of cases, or penalties or class of penalties as may be specified by the Board.
The penalty shall be levied under this Scheme as per the following procedure, namely
- where any income-tax authority or the National Faceless Assessment Centre has, in a case initiated penalty proceedings and issued a show-cause notice for imposition of penalty
- The National Faceless Penalty Centre shall in a case, where reference has been received as per the above clause shall assign such case to a specific penalty unit in any one of the Regional Faceless Penalty Centres through an automated allocation system
- Once a case is assigned to an assessment unit, it may make a request to the National e-Assessment Centre for Obtaining such further information, documents or evidence from the taxpayer or any other person, as it may specify and Conducting of certain enquiry or verification by verification unit and shall seek technical assistance from the technical unit
Upon a request being made by the assessment unit for any documents or evidence, the National e-Assessment Centre shall issue appropriate notice or requisition to the taxpayer or any other person for obtaining the information, documents or evidence requisitioned by the assessment unit and the taxpayer can submit a response to the notice within the time specified in the notice.
The ‘assessment unit’ shall, after taking into account all the relevant material gathered as above, pass a draft assessment order either accepting the returned income of the taxpayer or modifying the returned income of the taxpayer, as the case may be, and send a copy of such order to the National e-Assessment Centre
An appeal against an assessment order or penalty order made by the National e-Assessment Centre under this scheme can be filed before the Commissioner (Appeals) having jurisdiction over the jurisdictional Assessing Officer.
