E-Assessment Centre (National) — NeAC
The National e-Assessment Centre (NeAC) is the apex entity established by CBDT under the Faceless Assessment Scheme to serve as the sole point of contact between taxpayers and the income tax department during faceless assessment proceedings, coordinating Assessment, Verification, Technical, and Review Units across Regional e-Assessment Centres.
The National e-Assessment Centre (NeAC), headquartered in Delhi, is the institutional nerve centre of India's faceless tax assessment architecture. It was constituted under the Faceless Assessment Scheme notified in 2020 and subsequently given statutory backing through the insertion of Section 144B into the Income Tax Act. Every faceless assessment conducted in India is formally initiated and concluded through the NeAC.
From a process perspective, when a taxpayer's return is selected for scrutiny, the NeAC issues the notice under Section 143(2) and all subsequent correspondence. It serves as the taxpayer-facing interface throughout the assessment. However, the actual examination work is delegated by the NeAC to an Assessment Unit (AU) sitting in one of the Regional e-Assessment Centres (ReACs) located across major cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Pune, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru. The AU prepares the draft assessment order.
The NeAC can also refer cases to Verification Units (VUs) to gather factual information from third parties, to Technical Units (TUs) for specialised analysis, and to Review Units (RUs) for a quality check of draft orders. Once the review process is complete, the NeAC finalises and dispatches the assessment order to the taxpayer through the portal. All of this happens without the taxpayer knowing which unit or centre handled their case.
Appeals against NeAC-issued orders lie before the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) — faceless — under the Faceless Appeal Scheme 2021. The appellate mechanism similarly follows the faceless model, with cases randomly allocated to Appellate Units across regional centres and all communication through the portal.
The NeAC framework also covers reassessment proceedings under Section 148 and revision proceedings under Sections 263 and 264 in many cases. Its functioning has been subject to judicial scrutiny, with several High Courts examining the sufficiency of opportunity provided to taxpayers and the adequacy of reasoned orders. The Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of the scheme while directing that certain procedural safeguards — including the right to a personal hearing in appropriate cases — must be preserved.