Taxpayers' charter: Expect more fairness

The tax charter has been issued under the newly minted Section 119A of I-T Act. It is no longer an unenforceable administrative promise made by CBDT more as a public-relations exercise

The faceless assessment scheme (and electronic appeal process) for direct taxes and the taxpayers’ charter were unrolled with much fanfare on the eve of Independence Day. The faceless assessment scheme has been hyped for the past two years and hence has lost its novelty value. The taxpayers’ charter has been around in various forms for at least a decade. Everybody knows that the tax department did not follow the earlier charter. So why should they believe it now when the tax department promises to be “fair, courteous and reasonable”?

Well, this time it really is different. The tax charter has