Finance Ministry summons Infosys' Salil Parekh; seeks explanation on tax portal glitches

The Finance Ministry (FM) has summoned the MD and CEO of Infosys Salil Parekh on August 23 to explain the complications faced by the new income tax e-filing portal (www.incometax.gov.in) lately. The Income Tax department notified via a release on Sunday that FM Nirmala Sitharaman was in dire need of an explanation as to why even after 2.5 months since launch, users were facing technical glitches. The release also stated that the portal was not available for use since August 21.

What did the release suggest?

IT firm Infosys was offered a contract to develop a next-generation income tax filing system back in 2019. This effort taken by the Finance Ministry was solely to reduce processing time for return from 63 days to one day and expedite refunds. The FM while summoning Parekh demanded, "Why even after 2.5 months since the launch of the new e-filing portal, glitches in the portal have not been resolved. In fact, since August 21 the portal itself is not available."

Nirmala Sitharaman urged but Infosys failed to deliver

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had time and again stressed on the need for a user-friendly experience and exhorted Infosys to work on the portal in an effort to make it more user-friendly. The new tax portal went live on June 7. The much-touted new income tax portal had a bumpy start since its launch as it continued to face tech glitches. Taking note of the grievance voiced on social media by taxpayers, tax professionals, and other stakeholders, the Finance Minister had earlier flagged the issues to Infosys, calling upon them to address these concerns. 

Opposition leaders raised concern over the new Income Tax Portal

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor had previously slammed the centre over the reported glitches and said  "Even after spending Rs 4200 crore, the government had 'failed' to attain the objective and 'created a mess' instead. Taking to Twitter, the Thiruvananthapuram MP said that Chartered Accountants in All India Professionals Congress (AIPC) informed him that the change of Income Tax Portal has been "disastrous", with glitches including "longer-than-usual log-in times".

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