Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday gave a major push to tax reforms in the country by launching “Transparent Taxation-Honoring the Honest” platform

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday gave a major push to tax reforms in the country by launching “Transparent Taxation-Honoring the Honest” platform.

Speaking on the occasion, the Prime Minister said, “The country’s honest taxpayer plays a big role in nation building.”

He added the new facilities being launched today reinforce the government’s commitment to honoring the honest.”

The newly launched platform will offer faceless assessments, faceless appeal and taxpayer charter. Faceless appeal will be applicable from September 25, while faceless assessment and taxpayer charter will come into force from August 13 itself.

While the CBDT has carried out several major tax reforms in direct taxes in recent years, the Corporate Tax rates were reduced from 30 percent to 22 percent last year and for new manufacturing units the rates were reduced to 15 percent. Dividend distribution Tax was also abolished.

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.

This includes bringing more transparency in official communication through the newly introduced Document Identification Number (DIN) wherein every communication of the Department would carry a computer generated unique document identification number. Similarly, to increase the ease of compliance for taxpayers, IT Department has moved forward with pre-filing income tax returns to make compliance more convenient for individual taxpayers. Compliance norms for startups have also been simplified.

With a view to provide for resolution of pending tax disputes the IT Department also brought out the Direct Tax “Vivad se Vishwas Act, 2020” under which declarations for settling disputes are being filed currently.

To effectively reduce taxpayer grievances and litigation, the monetary thresholds for filing of departmental appeals in various appellate Courts have been raised. Several measures have been taken to promote digital transactions and electronic modes of payment.

The IT department is committed to take the initiatives forward and has also made efforts to ease compliances for taxpayers during the Covid-19 times by extending statutory timeliness for filing returns and also releasing refunds expeditiously to increase liquidity in the hands of taxpayers.