Finance Ministry has summoned Infosys Managing Director and Chief Executive – Salil Parekh over troubles with the new income tax e-filing portal. The website went live earlier this year but has been marred by glitches since its launch.
Salil Parekh has been called to appear before the Ministry of Finance on August 23, Monday, to explain to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman “as to why even after 2.5 months since the launch of new e-filing portal, glitches in the portal have not been resolved,” Income Tax Department said in a tweet on Sunday.
Ministry of Finance has summoned Sh Salil Parekh,MD&CEO @Infosys on 23/08/2021 to explain to hon’ble FM as to why even after 2.5 months since launch of new e-filing portal, glitches in the portal have not been resolved. In fact,since 21/08/2021 the portal itself is not available.
— Income Tax India (@IncomeTaxIndia) August 22, 2021
In its tweet, the Income Tax department said, “In fact, since August 21, 2021, the portal itself is not available”.
The new income tax e-filing portal was launched on June 7 to ease the tax filing process and expedite the refund issue. The government of India had given Infosys the contract to develop the website in January 2019. However, ever since its launch, the taxpayers have faced numerous problems accessing and using the portal.
On June 22, Finance Ministry reportedly had summoned Infosys officials to a meeting to discuss the glitches in the new income tax portal and seek suggestions from other shareholders to fix them. In the meeting, Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) representatives pointed out the issues taxpayers and tax professionals face on the portal.
Earlier this week, FM Sitharaman had said that glitches are expected to be resolved in two-three weeks.
“The glitches on the new Income are expected to be fixed entirely in the next two-three weeks. I have been reminding Infosys constantly, and Nandan Nilekani is giving me assurances that they will sort it out,” she said.
During the monsoon session, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary had informed the Parliament in a written reply that from January 2019 till June 2021, Infosys has been paid Rs.164.5 crore to develop the portal.
