Income Tax website bugs: Infosys CEO Salil Parikh summoned by Centre to explain why portal plagued by problems

The new Income Tax website (incometaxindia.gov.in) rolled out by Infosys was expected to be a boon for taxpayers, but it soon turned into a bane. Users faced numerous bugs during the frustrating process.

The Income Tax website (incometaxindia.gov.in) was projected to take Income Tax collection to the next level, but it ended up taking a backward step. (Arvind Yadav/HT PHOTO)

India's finance ministry has summoned the chief executive officer of Infosys Ltd., Asia's second-largest software service provider, asking him to explain why glitches in the nation's new electronic tax filing portal have not yet been fixed. 

The snags in the portal haven't been resolved after two and half months since its launch, and it hasn't been available at all since Saturday, the Income Tax department said in a Twitter post. Salil Parekh, the CEO of Infosys, has been summoned on Aug. 23 to explain the problem to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, according to the tweet. 

India's cabinet approved a new income tax e-filing portal at a cost of 42.42 billion rupees ($570 million) in 2019, and the government has paid Infosys 1.65 billion rupees through June this year for the project, Junior Finance Minister Pankaj Chaudhary told parliament last month. Taxpayers and professionals have reported defects in the portal and Infosys has acknowledged technical issues, Chaudhary said in a written response to a lawmaker's questions.

“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,” the Income Tax department's Twitter handle tweeted on Monday. 

According to a report by Livemint, the Finance Ministry had met with the company's officials in June, where the portal's glitches were reportedly discussed. The report states that representatives of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) were also present and pointed out the issues with the portal faced by both taxpayers and tax experts. 

• With inputs from HT Correspondent