The Union finance ministry's September 15 deadline for the Bengaluru-based IT major Infosys Ltd to fix glitches that have plagued the income tax department’s new e-filing portal since its launch will end today. Although some tax professionals and users are still complaining about the glitches.
Amid the coronavirus pandemic and technical glitches in the IT portal, the government last week extended the deadline till December 31 for filing of income tax returns by individuals for the financial year 2021. Earlier, the deadline was extended to September 30, 2021.
"On consideration of difficulties reported by the taxpayers and other stakeholders in filing of Income Tax Returns and various reports of audit for the Assessment Year 2021-22 under the Income-tax Act, 1961, Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has decided to further extend the due dates for filing of Income Tax Returns and various reports of audit for the Assessment Year 2021-22," the finance ministry said in a statement.
New e-filing portal
The new e-filing portal, www.incometax.gov.in, was launched on June 7. It had a bumpy start since the day of its launch with taxpayers and professionals reporting glitches and difficulties. Infosys was in 2019 given the contract to develop the portal.
“A number of technical issues have been addressed and there is a positive trend reflected in the statistics of the various filings on the portal," the Ministry of Finance said in a statement recently.
"The Ministry of Finance has been regularly monitoring the resolution of issues with Infosys Ltd," the statement added.
On August 23, the finance ministry had "summoned" Infosys CEO Salil Parekh to explain why issues continued to plague the new e-filing portal. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in the meeting with Parekh, expressed "deep disappointment" over glitches persisting for more than two months after launch and gave him time till September 15 to resolve all issues.
