Ahead of meeting with Infosys’ top brass on August 23 to discuss glitches facing the income tax portal, government officials said the discussion was not happening in isolation nor was it a sudden decision.
Finance Minister Nirmal Sitharaman had last discussed the issue with the Bengaluru-based IT player on June 22. Since then, there have been regular interactions between the Finance Ministry and the IT major, government sources said.
“There has been constant communication with Infosys on the matter. We are regularly being apprised about the work being done on it, as well as the problems being faced by taxpayers?” a finance Ministry official told Moneycontrol.
“The Finance Minister now wants to better understand from Infosys why work is taking so long on glitches which were brought to their attention some time back, and what is being done to expedite it,” the official said.
CEO Salil Parekh, and CN Ragupathi, Head–India Business, Infosys, will meet Sitharaman in person to discuss the problems that the e-filing portal has been facing after its launch on June 7.
The portal was again not accessible between August 21 and late evening on August 22.
Also read: E-filing portal now accessible hours before Infosys CEO Salil Parekh's Finance Ministry summons
In a tweet, the IT department said, “Ministry of Finance has summoned Salil Parekh, MD & CEO @Infosys on 23/08/2021 to explain to hon'ble FM as to why even after 2.5 months since the 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.”
Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) officials, including chairman JB Mohapatra, have been in touch with Infosys over the glitches and features of the portal.
CBDT and Infosys are regularly given feedback by a group of chartered accountants, company secretaries and taxpayers about the interface and its ease of usage.
Revenue Secretary Tarun Bajaj has been taking stock of the work being done on the portal in virtual meetings every week, with CDBT and Infosys as well as taxpayers who use the interface.
This is the second time the company will be meeting the Sitharaman over the glitches. During the meeting on June 22, attended by Parekh virtually and COO UB Pravin Rao in person, the executives assured that the glitches will be resolved and the company had augmented resources to address the concerns.
Infosys was awarded the contract, with an outlay of Rs 4,242 crore, in 2019 after a bidding process. The aim was to develop the next-generation of income-tax filing system to reduce processing time for returns from 63 days to one day and also expedite refunds.
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