Central Board of Direct Tax (CBDT) vide its Notification no:05/2019 dated 30th January 2019 has notified the scheme for centralized issuance of notice and for processing of information or documents and making available the outcome of the processing to the Assessing Officer

This scheme shall be applicable to any information or documents in possession of the Centralised Verification Centre or made available to the Centre, by Income Tax Authorities, any other authority, body or person, in accordance with the orders issued by the Board under section 119 of the Act.

As per the Scheme, the Centre may issue the notice under the digital signature of the Designated Authority with a copy by electronic mail or by placing a copy in the registered account on the e-filing portal followed by an intimation by SMS.

It has been further provided that no person shall be required to appear personally or through authorized representative before the Designated Authority at the Centre in connection with any proceedings.

The Principal Director General of Income-tax (Systems) or Director General of Income-tax (Systems) shall have the power to prescribe norms for matters in connection with,
(a) format and procedure for issuance of the notice;
(b) receipt of any information or document from the person in response to the notice;
(c) mode and formats for the issue of acknowledgment of the response furnished by the person;
(d) provision of web portal facility including login facility, tracking status of verification, display of relevant details, and facility of download;
(e) accessing, processing and verification of information and response including documents submitted during the verification process;
(f) format and data structure for making available the outcome of verification to the Assessing Officer; (g) call center to answer queries and provide support services, including outbound calls and inbound calls seeking information or clarification;
(h) receipt, scanning, data entry, storage, and retrieval of information or documents in a centralized manner;
(i) grievance redressal mechanism in the Centre.

Introduction of the new system handling e-assessment by two officers will ease the conduct of task and which would increase the efficiency of return filing. Under the new assessment procedure, neither the assessee nor the tax officer would know the other’s identity