India government has set September 15 as the deadline for software major Infosys to resolve glitches in the new income tax filing portal.
This follows the meeting between India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Infosys CEO Salil Parekh in Delhi.
A statement issued by the Income Tax Department said that during the meeting the finance minister emphasized that there is a need for putting in more resources and efforts on the part of Infosys so that the much delayed delivery of agreed services is ensured.
“Finance Minister demanded that the issues faced by taxpayers on current functionalities of the portal should be resolved by the team by 15th September 2021 so that taxpayers and professionals can work seamlessly on the portal,” the I-T department said in a statement after the meeting.
Sitharaman conveyed the disappointment and concerns of the government and the taxpayers about the continuing glitches in the e-filing portal. “She sought an explanation from Infosys for the repeated issues faced by taxpayers.”
Infosys’ 750 team members are working on this project and Pravin Rao, COO of Infosys, is overseeing this project.
The income tax filing portal, which went live on June 7, was not accessible on August 21 and 22 till late evening. It came back after what the tech major described was an “emergency maintenance”.
Infosys was awarded the Rs 4,242 crore contract in 2019 to develop the portal. The project was aimed at developing the next-generation income tax filing system to reduce processing time for returns from 63 days to one day and also expedite refunds. India government has paid Rs 164.5 crore to Infosys between January 2019 to June 2021 for developing the portal.
