The Ministry of Finance, on Sunday, issued a summon to Infosys MD & CEO Salil Parekh to seek an explanation as to why the IT company is unable to remove ongoing glitches in the new income tax portal —www.incometax.gov.in, after 2.5 months of its launch.
The notice to the CEO of Infosys, which was given the contract in 2019, to develop the new e-filing portal for the Income Tax (I-T) Department, was sent after the portal became unavailable on Saturday, August 21, 2021 — one month before the extended deadline for the filing of Income Tax Department on September 30, 2021.
“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 the 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 tweeted Sunday afternoon.
Launched with much fanfare on June 7, 2021, ahead of the income tax return filing for Assessment Year 2021-22, the portal had promised to provide a “convenient, modern, and seamless experience to the taxpayers”. However, users began reporting problems from day one of the launch itself. Infosys has so far been paid Rs 164.5 crore between January 2019 and June 2021 for developing the e-filing portal by the government.
The problems with the portal continue to persist despite 2.5 months of the launch of the new e-filing portal. Earlier this week, FM Nirmala Sitharaman assured that all problems with the platform will be rectified in a “few days”, adding that her ministry will make an announcement whether it plans to further extend the deadline for ITR filing for AY 2021-22. She also said the government is monitoring the issue closely.
“We believe to a large extent the tax portal issues have been resolved but some issues still remain,” the FM had said, adding that Revenue Secretary Tarun Bajaj was monitoring the situation on a “weekly basis”. The government had asked Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani and the Infosys team to be present to engage with stakeholders including the chartered accountants and tax experts to resolve the issues in the new tax portal.
