Improve relationship with tax payers by not delaying refunds

The government is depending on this initiative in a big way to remove the friction that exists in the relationship between the tax department and tax payers presently

The brouhaha around the re-introduction of the long-term capital gains tax has monopolised the conversation around Budget 2018.
 
In this confusion, some significant administrative changes made haven’t got the attention that they deserve. One such provision is enabling the government to notify a scheme for making income tax assessments more ‘efficient, transparent and accountable’. This is sought to be achieved primarily by eliminating the interface between the Assessing Officer (AO) and the taxpayer during the assessment proceedings and freeing the assessments from the bounds of geography. In other words, depending on the type of case, a Mumbai-based tax payer