The Finance Ministry summoned Infosys MD and CEO Salil Parekh over the company’s failure to address issues related to flaws in the new Income Tax e-filing portal.
On Monday, Parekh will appear before Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to explain why the portal’s faults have not been rectified even after more than two months of operation.
What did the IT department have to say?
“Ministry of Finance has summoned Salil Parekh, MD & CEO of 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,” the Income Tax department stated in a tweet.
“In fact, since 21/08/2021 the portal itself is not available,” it stated.
Since the portal’s launch, FM has received complaints
The new Income Tax site went live on June 7th, with the goal of improving the taxpayer experience by lowering the processing time for returns from 63 days to one day and expediting refunds.
However, Sitharaman stated that her Twitter timeline had been swamped with complaints about the portal’s faults since its inception.
She then pressed Infosys to address these concerns.
Nandan Nilekani, the co-founder of Infosys, has assured that the problems will be rectified soon.
Nilekani had previously tweeted, “The new e-filing portal will ease the filing process and enhance the end-user experience. Nirmala Sitharaman Ji, we have observed some technical issues on day one and are working to resolve them. Infosys regrets these initial glitches and expects the system to stabilise during the week.”
Infosys was paid Rs. 164 crores by the government to build the platform
Notably, in 2019, Infosys was granted the contract to create the next-generation income tax filing portal.
The government paid Infosys Rs. 164.5 crores to create the portal between 2019 and June 2021.
In the past, Sitharaman has emphasised the importance of making it easier for taxpayers to comply. She has expressed confidence in Infosys to rectify the issue as soon as possible.