Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday demanded that the issues faced by taxpayers on current functionalities of the portal should be resolved by Infosys team by 15th September, 2021 so that taxpayers and professionals can work seamlessly on the portal.
Sitharaman took a meeting with Infosys MD & CEO Salil Parekh today afternoon to convey the deep disappointment and concerns of the Government and the taxpayers about the continuing glitches in the e-filing portal of the Income Tax Department even after two and half months since its launch, which was also delayed, Sitharaman sought an explanation from Infosys for the repeated issues faced by taxpayers.
The Ministry of Finance emphasised that there is a need for putting in more resources and efforts on the part of Infosys so that the much delayed delivery of agreed services is ensured. Parekh was also sensitised on the difficulties that the taxpayers were facing and the problems that are arising on account of the delays in the functioning of the portal.
Parekh explained that he and his team are doing everything to ensure the smooth functioning of the portal. Further,he said that over 750 team members are working on this project and Pravin Rao COO of Infosys, is personally overseeing this project. Parekh also assured that Infosys is working expeditiously to ensure a glitch-free experience to the taxpayers on the portal.
For the uninitiated, The Finance Ministry summoned Infosys MD and CEO Salil Parekh on Monday, as the tax portal was still facing glitches. The Income Tax Department tweeted, “The Ministry of Finance has summoned Sh Salil Parekh, MD & CEO of 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 new portal executed by Infosys was launched on June 7, and within hours, several complaints were lodged with regard to the glitches in the portal, wherein the users were unable to generate OTP for Aadhaar validation, password generation glitches, failure to link old data for past returns, and problems in filing returns.
