FM summons Infy chief today over bugs in tax portal

The finance ministry has summoned Infosys managing director and chief executive officer Salil Parekh over troubles with the new income tax (I-T) e-filing portal. The website went live earlier this year, but has been marred by glitches since its launch on June 7.

Parekh has been called to appear before the finance ministry on Monday to explain to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman “as to why even after two and a half months since launch of the new e-filing portal, glitches have not been resolved,” the Ministry of Finance said in a tweet on Sunday.

“Since August 21, the portal itself became unavailable,” it added.

The new I-T e-filing portal was launched on June 7, with the motive to reduce the processing time for returns from 63 days to one day and expedite refunds. Infosys was given the contract to develop the website in January 2019 after a bidding process with an outlay of ~4,241.97 crore. The project was expected to be completed in 18 months and was to be launched after three months of testing. However, it was launched after a delay.

The government has so far paid ~164.5 crore to Infosys between January 2019 and June this year for developing the portal.

“The entire assessment process is on hold. The time limits of reopening I-T cases need to get extended beyond September,” said a tax official. Rajat Mohan, senior partner, AMRG & Associates, said the I-T portal is far from functional. Amit Maheshwari, partner, AKM Global, said the service provider was given two years to develop a new portal. “Two years were enough, given the old portal was running smoothly,” said Maheshwari. The new portal has issues like late fee being levied for I-T returns filed after July 31, especially when the last date of filing returns has been extended.