Infosys COO assures IT major 'committed' to resolve glitches on income tax e-filing portal

IT major Infosys, on June 19, acknowledged technological glitches on their new income tax e-filing portal and stated deep concerns over the inconvenience caused. The company said they were committed to redressing several technological errors and that nearly one lakh income tax returns have been filed through the portal so far.

"We look forward to working with all the stakeholders over the next few weeks to make sure that all concerns (over the portal) are addressed," said Infosys' Chief Operating Officer Pravin Rao at the company's 40th Annual General Meeting.

Stakeholders voiced concerns at AGM

India's second-largest IT firm had a showdown with its stakeholders during the company's 40th AGM on Saturday when they raised questions over the recently launched platform.

"Infosys is working to resolve concerns on the new income tax portal. Several tech glitches have been addressed over the past few weeks, and we have observed lakhs of unique daily users on the portal. Close to one lakh income tax returns have been filed so far," Rao said.

Infosys COO Pravin Rao assured that the company was "looking forward" to working closely with stakeholders in the coming weeks to ensure that all inputs and feedbacks are reviewed and addressed towards the objective of delivering "enhanced functionality and seamless end-user experience."

"We have observed concerns relating to filing forms, e-proceedings, instant e-pan amounts, etc. Our project teams are working to resolve the issues. We are deeply concerned with the initial inconvenience and we look forward to working closely with all stakeholders over the next few weeks to deliver a better experience," he added.

Contract to build next-gen income tax filing system

In 2019, Infosys was awarded a contract to develop a convenient online portal for income tax filings in order to reduce duration of returns and expedite refunds. 

The new e-filing website of the Income Tax Department was launched on June 7 and flagged technical glitches since the first day itself. Back then, Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Infosys Chairman Nandan Nilekani had acknowledged the error and stated on Twitter.

The new portal - www.incometax.gov.in replaces the 'http://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in' site and can be accessed by taxpayers in regional languages too. The portal has separate tabs for different categories of taxpayers, like individual, company, non-company and tax professionals. In addition, it has a drop-down menu for taxpayers for checking instructions on ITR filing, refund status and tax slabs. 

Infosys is set to meet with the government on tax portal issues on June 22.