Tax filing deadline nears but new I-T portal faces glitches even 2 months after launch

 







Over two months after its launch, the new income tax portal continues to face glitches, with taxpayers and chartered accountants struggling to file tax returns ahead of the 30 September deadline.

The portal was launched on 7 June but has since been at the receiving end of criticism because of the problems faced by taxpayers in filing returns and in availing of other services. The country’s second largest information technology company, Infosys, is the service provider for the portal, 

From filing a tax return to accessing credit statements to verifying returns online as well, taxpayers are struggling with this “extremely slow” website. The fact that many features, including some tax return forms, are still missing is only adding to their problems.

Nikhil Vadia, a chartered accountant with N.N. Vadia and Co, said it was for the first time in the last two decades that he did not file a single income tax return till July. “There are still many issues that the portal is facing. Even basic things like 26AS downloads, ITR acknowledgement, ITR form downloads and e-verification process are creating issues,” he said.

“Even this month, the returns filed are less than 1% of the returns normally filed. The portal is working very slowly and hence every return is taking more time to file,” Vadia said, pointing out that the new portal went live without on-boarding existing software providers.

Many other chartered accountants echoed this and complained about the wastage of time in grappling with the website. Some even opined that the new website may encourage more taxpayers to approach chartered accountants to file their returns rather than attempting the arduous task themselves.

An email sent to the I-T department remained unanswered till the time of publishing this report. However, in response to a query last month in Parliament, the Ministry of Finance had acknowledged that glitches persist, and said the I-T department is continuously engaged with Infosys to expedite the resolution of any pending issues.

An Infosys spokesperson said in an email response that several of the initial challenges that were identified in the tax portal have been resolved.


“There is some work that still needs to be done, and our teams are collaborating with the Income Tax Department and industry associations, to further enhance functionality, and elevate the user experience for taxpayers,” the spokesperson said.


In a conference call with analysts last month after its first quarter results, Infosys chief operating officer Pravin Rao had said that while many issues raised around performance and stability have been addressed, some intermittent issues remain.

Terming it as the “single largest priority for the company”, Rao had said the company was working to “expeditiously” address all issues and add more features for use of taxpayers regularly.

The new I-T portal was given cabinet approval in January 2019 and the contract was awarded to Infosys through a bidding process. Since then, the government has paid Infosys Rs 164.5 crore for the project.

The portal has been in the eye of a storm since its launch. After it was launched late evening of 7 June, users started complaining about their inability to log in to the portal.

Citing the grievances, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman took Infosys to task, asking the company to not “let down” taxpayers.

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