The Union Law Minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad on Thursday informed that the Centre is working on a plan to bring digital processes in issuance of tax notices so as to reduce the unnecessary harassment for the assesses with greater transparency.

Addressing a media gathering in Ahmedabad, Prasad said, "The Centre has taken a very important decision. From October 2, 2019 onwards, the tax notices will not be issued directly by the assessing officials. The (proposed) notices will first go into a digital system, which will further examine the notice and it will only be issued to the assessee if found proper."

Earlier the tax assessing officials used to directly issue the notice to the assessee in case of a query or mismatch in the returns filed.

"Now the assessing officer will not issue directly to the assessees. There will be Central digital pool, where the notices will first land and based on the digital evaluation of the notice, the Centre will take a decision," added Prasad, who was in town to celebrate and share the achievements of the Modi-2 government's 100 days in power.

Prasad claimed credit in bringing ease of doing business and the government's approach, by such digital initiatives to make it more people-oriented.

"As a Telecom Minister, I am happy to share with you that we have launched a broadband mission, under which we plan to penetrate into villages and remote parts of India with broadband connection. We aim to have broadband connection at every corner of the country by 2022. The work is under progress," he added.

About the Economy

On the economic front, Prasad stated that the fundamentals of the economy remain strong with all key indicators showing strength. "I admit 5.1 per cent GDP growth for first quarter. But the fundamentals of Indian economy remain strong... On employment front the EPFO data shows that between September 2017 and June 2019, total enrollment was 2.54 crore people. Total 19.99 crore number of Mudra loans have been given with disbursement of Rs 9.84 lakh crore. Nasscom data shows IT sector employs about 40 lakh directly, of which 8.7 lakh were added in last five years."

Employment

When asked about the NSSO data showing unemployment rate hitting a four-decade high at 6.1 per cent, Prasad stated that it was a draft report of NSSO and personally he believed that the data was faulty as it didn't consider other employment avenues in the Information Technology (IT) field, mobile manufacturing etc.

"We can't assure a government job to everyone. But we can create the opportunities for employment. And employability, which is more important aspect in the debate on employment, is being addressed through various initiatives here," he added.