The Ministry of Finance has summoned Infosys MD and CEO, Salil Parekh, on Monday over continuing glitches in the new income tax e-filing portal. The issue was flagged off by none other than Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
Parekh will personally explain to the Finance Minister the reason for the persistent glitches. The Finance Minister had earlier asked Infosys to work on the portal to make it more humane and user-friendly and expressed her deep concern about the various problems being faced by the stakeholders.
In a recent tweet, the Income Tax Department said that the portal is not available since Saturday, August 21. The summons followed thereafter.
"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 department said.
The new income tax e-filing portal developed by Infosys was launched on June 7 in a bid to ease the tax filing process and expedite the refund issue.
However, taxpayers have been facing several problems in using the portal since its inception.
In July, the Union Finance Ministry asked the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) to constitute a seven-member task force to look into the technical issues facing the new Income Tax e-filing portal developed by Infosys.
In line with the directive, the ICAI constituted a team to analyse the issues.
During the recent Monsoon Session of Parliament, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha that Infosys has been paid a total of Rs 164.5 crore under the project.
So far, Nandan Nilekani, the non-executive chairman of Infosys, has been reporting to Ms Sitharaman on a weekly basis. Expressing regrets for the glitches, Nilekani had said they would be resolved in a matter of days.
