New Delhi: A new Income Tax e-filing portal was launched in early June to simplify the process for taxpayers. It had teething problems, but even two-and-a-half months down the line, the website is anything but glitch-free.
The portal, in fact, has not been functioning since August 22.
The government is so fed up and livid that it has asked Infosys, who developed the portal, to give an explanation.
The Ministry of Finance has asked Infosys MD & CEO Salil Parekh to appear on August 23 and explain to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman why the glitches on the portal have not been resolved yet.
“Ministry of Finance has summoned Salil Parekh, MD & CEO @Infosys on 23/08/2021 to explain to hon’ble FM as to why even after 2.5 months since launch of new e-filing portal, glitches in the portal have not been resolved. In fact, since 21/08/2021 the portal itself is not available,” the Income Tax department said in a tweet on Sunday.
The government awarded Infosys the contract to develop a next-generation income tax-filing system which would reduce processing time for returns from 63 days to one day and expedite refunds.
But within hours of its launch on June 7, Sitharaman’s Twitter timeline was flooded with complaints of various glitches.
“The much-awaited e-filing portal 2.0 was launched last night at 20:45hrs. I see in my TL grievances and glitches. Hope @Infosys & @NandanNilekani will not let down our taxpayers in the quality of service being provided. Ease in compliance for the taxpayer should be our priority,” the Finance Minister tweeted on June 8.
Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani responded by saying that Infosys “regrets these initial glitches and expects the system to stabilise during the week.”
That promise, however, is yet to be fulfilled.
