Right to legal certainty: Budget 2021 changes alter taxpayer protections and administrative remedies, affecting appeal routes.
The document analyses recognition and protection of taxpayer rights in India under the Taxpayers' Charter, highlighting core rights: legal certainty, non retrospective taxation, equality, procedural due process and appeal, information and assistance, accurate taxation, and privacy. It assesses Union Budget 2021 changes as having a positive effect by abandoning routine retrospective amendments but a negative effect by replacing quasi judicial bodies with administrative Boards, thereby reducing binding certainty, shortening limitation periods, and weakening enforcement of procedural safeguards; it recommends restoring independent adjudication and strengthening Charter enforcement. (AI Summary)