I-T portal issues to be resolved soon, says FM Nirmala Sitharaman

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman

With glitches still haunting the new income tax portal, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday said she wished the Infosys-developed website did not have such a launch but hoped issues will be sorted out soon. Sitharaman said Infosys had done trial runs before the June 7 launch but users faced technical issues in accessing the portal.

"I wish it hadn't happened this way. But we are correcting the course and sooner the portal will be as is planned, easy to use," she said. The new income tax e-filing portal 'www.incometax.gov.in' had a bumpy start from the day of its launch on June 7 as it continued to face tech glitches.

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Talking to reporters, Sitharaman said her ministry along with Infosys had done trial runs before launching the portal, but still users experienced "quite a lot of difficulties" after its launch. "Infosys is quite closely working with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) and the ministry and rapidly, at least from what I hear from chartered accountants and income tax professionals, there is definitely a lot of improvement," she added.

Infosys was in 2019 awarded a contract to develop the next-generation income tax filing system to reduce processing time for returns from 63 days to one day and expedite refunds. The government has so far paid Rs 164.5 crore to Infosys between January 2019 to June 2021 for developing the portal.

Sitharaman had on June 22 called a meeting with key officials of Infosys to review the issues on the portal. In the meeting, the ICAI members highlighted the issues faced by taxpayers and tax professionals on the portal.