New Delhi: 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, https://www.incometax.gov.in.
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.
This is very auspicious Moment for me that i could e verify and submit a income tax return with out losing my patience.
In this Moment i want to thank Infosys for not letting me get frustrated while filing the return#incometaxnewportal pic.twitter.com/W6IarBWeHd
— CA Adithya Komakula (@CaKomakula) August 5, 2021
The amount of time I am investing (wasting) in filing income tax returns, I should charge atleast 1 lakh per return from each return successfully filed !!
Whatever, I haven't yet filed a single one. Atleast 20+ mandays invested (wasted) in testing bugs.#incometaxportal
— Puneet Agarwal (@banyanfa) August 6, 2021
Ideally professionals need to thank @Infosys and @IncomeTaxIndia for new portal
Lot of taxpayers filing tax returns by self are coming to professional for filing tax returns this year@nsitharaman @NandanNilekani
— CA Chirag Chauhan (@CAChirag) August 10, 2021
Then :- You don't need a CA to file your ITR
Now :- Even CAs are unable to file ITR return#incometaxnewportal #Infosys @guru_practice @abhishekrajaram @CAclubindia
— CA Parth Bhayani (@bhayani93) August 9, 2021
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.
Also read: Govt ready to do everything to revive & support economic growth, says Nirmala Sitharaman
Row over the portal
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.
The much awaited e-filing portal 2.0 was launched last night 20:45hrs.
I see in my TL grievances and glitches.
Hope @Infosys & @NandanNilekani will not let down our taxpayers in the quality of service being provided.
Ease in compliance for the taxpayer should be our priority. https://t.co/iRtyKaURLc
— Nirmala Sitharaman (@nsitharaman) June 8, 2021
Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani responded to the FM’s comment and assured that the glitches will be addressed and the portal will stabilise.
The new e-filing portal will ease the filing process and enhance end user experience. @nsitharaman ji, we have observed some technical issues on day one, and are working to resolve them. @Infosys regrets these initial glitches and expects the system to stabilise during the week. https://t.co/LocRBPCzpP
— Nandan Nilekani (@NandanNilekani) June 8, 2021
This was followed by a meeting of the finance ministry, Infosys and all stakeholders including chartered accountants, wherein the problems faced by taxpayers were flagged to Infosys.
Disclosure: Infosys Chairman Nandan Nilekani is among the distinguished founder-investors of ThePrint. Please click here for details on investors.
(Edited by Amit Upadhyaya)
Also read: How scams, scandals have helped Indian fund managers beat foreign rivals