The transition of Indian tax administration to a digitised and faceless assessment system, introduced in 2019 by the Narendra Modi government, represented a ground-breaking move toward providing a non-intrusive, non-adversarial tax ecosystem. Spearheaded by the National e-Assessment Centre (NeAC), faceless tax assessments were meant to eliminate human interaction, reduce bias, and improve transparency and efficiency in tax administration. The system promised timely case disposal, team-based assessments, and the standardisation of procedures, offering a streamlined and fairer approach for taxpayers across the country.

The elementary difference was that in the older manual assessments, the mode of the interface was physical and personal, whereas the 'faceless assessment', true to its name, is electronic, minimising chances of corruption.