Central Government announces Faceless Penalty Scheme, 2021 for conducting penalty proceedings in faceless mode

 

This Tax Alert summarizes the Faceless Penalty Scheme, 2021 (FPS), a recent scheme notified  and implemented by the Central Government (CG) for conducting penalty proceedings in a faceless manner under the Income Tax Laws  (ITL). FPS is largely in line with earlier schemes notified by the CG for conducting assessment  and appeal  proceedings and is intended to impart greater efficiency, transparency and accountability by eliminating the interface between taxpayers and the tax authority and by making optimal utilization of the administrative resources with dynamic jurisdiction. FPS involves a stepwise process to conduct penalty proceedings by harnessing the use of technology for communication between taxpayers and the tax authority and a team-based penalty process in lieu of the existing manual interface.