Pros and cons of e-assessment

Jigar Shah | Last updated: 08 July 2020

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Quick Summary

e-Assessment, or electronic assessment, uses IT for tax evaluations, offering benefits like reduced corruption and saved time. It's a forward-thinking approach, promoting paperless offices and cost savings for the government. However, challenges exist, including difficulties uploading large documents, potential misunderstandings due to lack of physical demonstration, and technical issues with the online portal.

e-Assessment - Electronic assessment, also known as e-assessment, online assessment, computer-assisted/mediated assessment and computer-based assessment, is the use of information technology in various forms of assessment.

e-Assessment: Pros and Cons for Taxpayers

Advantages

1. Faceless assessment reduced chances of corruption:

e-Assessment would almost eliminate person-to-person contact in the Tax Department for greater transparency in assessment procedures.

2. Saves time and efforts:

Since assessment procedures are electronic it saves travelling time for assessee, also it saves effort to find jurisdiction/place of assessing officers.

3. This is the future as cloud storage and paperless offices are growing:

Taxpayers can access/view all the documents that they might have submitted during the assessment period. Complete information related to all the submissions is saved in the e-Filing portal account which can be accessed any time for future reference. And risk like loss of files or damage to files are avoided due to e-Assessment.

4. Cost-effective for the Government:

Since assessment proceedings are paperless, it makes this initiative an environment-friendly project.

5. Assessment will be handled by two officers:

E-assessment of a taxpayer will now be handled by two officers, instead of the current system involving a single assessing officer, a deputation of two officials for one assessment case will aid in an increased level of monitoring.

Disadvantages

1. Traditional offices face trouble in uploading of voluminous documents:

Traditional offices which do not have sufficient infrastructure find difficulties in uploading voluminous documents.

2. Difficult to explain the subject entirely in submission without physical demonstration:

When the submission is complex in nature at that time assessee need to give physical presence at the Income Tax office to explain the case to assessing officers.

3. Officers make conclusions when they don't understand the submissions:

Many times, because of complex nature of business assessing office find difficulties in understanding documents submitted by assessee, due to which officer conclude the assessment based on his understanding.

4. Technical glitches on the portal delays the submission process:

It is possible sometimes speed of Internet is not good because some technical problems or excess load over Income Tax website, due to which assessee find difficulties in uploading documents at e-filing portal.

5. Size of the file is restricted to 5MB:

Submission size of a single file is maximum 5MB. Assesses have come with complaints that documents are larger in size and not getting uploaded. When it is suggested to assessee that upload documents after dividing files, then it becomes an added burden on the assesses.

6. Number of documents are restricted to 10 per submission:

When submission size is voluminous in nature at that time assessee needs to attach multiple documents but due to restriction on attachment assessee can not submit whole documents on e-filing portal.

FAQ :

e-Assessment, also known as online or computer-based assessment, is the use of information technology in various forms of assessment, particularly in tax procedures.

Key advantages include reduced corruption due to less person-to-person contact, time and effort savings for taxpayers, future-proofing with paperless systems, cost-effectiveness for the government, and increased monitoring through dual-officer assessment.

Disadvantages include difficulties for traditional offices uploading large documents, challenges explaining complex submissions without physical presence, potential officer misunderstandings, technical glitches on the portal, file size restrictions of 5MB, and a limit of 10 documents per submission.

e-Assessment reduces person-to-person contact within departments, leading to greater transparency in assessment procedures and minimising chances of corruption.

The portal has a file size restriction of 5MB per document and limits submissions to a maximum of 10 documents, which can be problematic for taxpayers with voluminous documentation.