Tax professionals have sought an extension of the December 31 deadline for filing tax returns as the e-filing portal continues to run into glitches.
Some organisations have also written to the finance ministry, seeking an extension, as the volume of users filing returns increases closer to the due date.
While major glitches in the new e-filing portal have been rectified, completing the process has not been smooth. Issues such as inability to complete the One Time Password (OTP) verification process in a timely manner, and unknown errors continue to crop up are delaying the return filing.
This has led to the tax professionals seeking extension. ‘#Extend_Due_Date_Immediately’ has been trending on Twitter recently. Some organisations such as the Chamber of Tax Consultants have written to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, and the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), seeking extension till March 31, 2022.
An email has been sent to Infosys, which had set up the portal, seeking comments on the glitches. The story will be updated when we get a response from the company.
The New e-filing portal
Infosys was awarded an Rs 4,200-crore contract in 2019 to develop the portal to replace the old one to reduce the processing time from 63 days to one day.
The idea was to have a taxpayer-friendly portal that was simple to use and expedited refunds but the portal has been more in the news for being inaccessible than making the process smooth. The portal was launched on June 7, 2021 amid peak tax season, and things started going downhill from the word go.
Infosys officials met Finance Minister Sitharaman twice, in June and August, regarding the glitches. The company was given a deadline of September 15 to resolve the matter. In response, the company said that it has a team of over 750 people working on the project. Later in September, the government extended the deadline for filing returns till December 31.
However, according to tax professionals, while the portal has been running well over the last month, the glitches continued and there have been delays in the process.
Glitches Continue
“The portal has been running well for the last 30-40 days. But I would not say it was seamless,” Abhishek Murali, President of the All India Taxpayers’ Association, said. The glitches, albeit less serious, have resulted in delay in filing the returns.
This does not help with more people thronging the site for filing their returns closer to the deadline, which is just two days away.
One of the key issues raised was around the OTP. Users are not getting the OTP on time, which is delaying the entire process.
This problem was raised in the request sent by the Chamber of Tax Consultants (CTC) to the finance minister. “OTPs are not coming on mobile phones or they come after a gap of time and have at times expired at the time of receipt,” the complaint read.
This means that the process that would take a day, would take more time to complete.
The other issue is an unknown error thrown up by the application. “While completing the form, you get validation errors, which we are not sure what these errors are for,” Murali said.
Harshil Sheth, another chartered accountant, concurred. “You encounter unknown errors while uploading such as disk full/ null/ undefined,” he said.
Though there is a grievance mechanism, with so many calling them, users are unable to get the response. Sheth said some services in the portal suddenly stop working, throwing up errors. This includes errors that users receive while uploading partnership firm ITR returns, or tax audit reports. There are also instances when users were unable to file forms 29B (disclosure of profits certified by a chartered accountant for an assessment) or 101E (new tax regime form).
“There has been constant updation of utilities and instructions for filing the ITR forms and tax audit report. Many taxpayers / consultants use third party software to file the ITRs and the software companies also take time to update the respective software with the above updation of utilities and thereby resulting in further delay in filing of ITRs,” the CTC said in its letter.
A Case for Extension
Multiple tax professionals pointed out that the new portal was launched amid the peak tax season and have been running into glitches since the time of launch. “You need at least 30-45 of smooth functioning of the portal to file the returns, which has not been the case,” Murali, who was cited earlier, said.
Sheth, who was cited earlier too, said that multiple utilities that should have been made available in April were launched after August.
According to the professionals, in the light of glitches, giving more time to file returns will enable taxpayers to file on time without worry. The CTC has made the request to extend the tax filing of individuals from December 31 to January 31.
The due date extension of furnishing of report of audit under any provisions of the Act, from January 15 to February 28. The extension to file returns for others, which stood at February 15 till March 31.
Will There be an Extension?
The income tax department in a statement shared that 4.86 crore IT returns have been filed as of December 28.
It is, however, not clear yet if the dates would be extended. According to media reports, the government is weighing an extension for IT returns. But there has been no communication from the government yet.
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