Transparent Taxation: PM Modi launches India’s First Taxpayers’ Charter

The much-awaited announcement by Prime Minister Modi has finally hit the news. On Thursday, PM Modi unveiled India’s first charter of taxpayers’ rights and duties. The “Transparent Taxation” is a step towards honouring and rewarding the honest taxpayers.

PM Modi addressed the nation through video conferencing and laid out the next phases of the reforms. He also took to twitter to talk about the charter.

Notably, the taxpayers’ charter was announced in the Union Budget for the fiscal year 2020-21 by the Finance Minister.

In this article, we will help you know everything that you need to know about this new reform. Read till the end.

Key Points On The ‘Transparent Taxation’ Platform

• The new platform that is launched today will be based on reforms like faceless assessment, faceless appeal and taxpayers’ charter. Faceless here means that there will be no human interaction between the taxpayer and the income tax officer.  This step aims to end the “jaan-pehchan” approach in tax scrutiny.
• The facilities of faceless assessment and taxpayer charter are now available for citizens. However, the faceless appeal facility will be coming into place from September 25.
• The new reforms will make the tax system seamless, painless and faceless to turn the system “people-centric and public friendly.”
• The taxpayers’ charter will also define the rights and responsibilities of the taxpayers. As per the new reforms, the Income Tax department must treat every taxpayer with “prompt, courteous and professional assistance”
• The charter also focuses on the collection of correct amount of tax, respecting the privacy of the taxpayers, reducing the cost of compliance, maintaining confidentiality, and publishing standard for service delivery in a periodic manner.

Source

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The Way Ahead

In the past few years,The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) carried out several major tax reforms. Be it reducing the Corporate Tax rate to 22 per cent from 30 per cent or abolishing the dividend distribution tax, the reforms aimed at various benefits. Now, with Transparent Taxation, the Indian government is planning to empower the taxpayers.

As per a press release by the Prime Minister’s Office, “the focus of the tax reforms has been on reduction in tax rates and on simplification of direct tax laws. Several initiatives have been taken by the CBDT for bringing in efficiency and transparency in the functioning of the IT Department”.

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