The Ministry of Finance on 28th December 2021, has published the Faceless Appeal Scheme, 2021 in supersession of the Faceless Appeal Scheme, 2020. The appeal under this Scheme shall be disposed of in respect of such territorial area or persons or class of persons or incomes or class of incomes or cases or class of cases, as may be specified by the Board.
The Board may set up-
- National Faceless Appeal Centre to facilitate the conduct of e-appeal proceedings in a centralised manner; and
- Appeal units, as it may deem necessary to facilitate the conduct of e-appeal proceedings by the Commissioner (Appeals).
As per the scheme no person shall be required to appear either personally or through authorised representative in connection with any proceedings before the income-tax authority at the National Faceless Appeal Centre or appeal unit set up under this Scheme and the commissioner (Appeals) shall allow the request for personal hearing via video conference and communicate the date and time of hearing to he appellant via the National Faceless Appeal Centre.
Any examination or recording of the statement of the appellant or any other person shall be conducted by Commissioner (Appeals) under this Scheme, exclusively through video conferencing or video telephony, including use of any telecommunication application software which supports video conferencing or video telephony, to the extent technologically feasible, in accordance with the procedure laid down by the Board.
Further, every notice or order or any other electronic communication under this Scheme shall be delivered to the addressee, being any other person, by sending an authenticated copy thereof to the registered email address of such person, followed by a real time alert.
