Income tax e-filing portal improves but many glitches persist as deadline for Infosys to fix the glitches looms

New Delhi, Sep 5 (FN Bureau) As September 15 deadline for tech giant Infosys to fix the income tax e-filing portal glitches comes closer, tax professionals say that the system woes are far from over and causing delay in getting refunds for many taxpayers. Itesh Dodhi, Director at Nangia & Co said that taxpayers are facing problems filing tax-returns in response to re-assessment proceedings. Even the companies able to file the tax return, after filing grievances, are not able to verify the tax-return using a Digital Signature Certificate (DSC). “Also, for the tax returns processed with certain discrepancies the new portal doesn’t allow filing of rectification applications. This is causing delay in getting the refunds.

The new portal is still not allowing filing of Form 15CA and 15CB (a prerequisite for making remittances overseas). In its absence taxpayers availing services from overseas vendors are not able to make remittances overseas and thus, affecting their businesses,” said Dodhi. Following frequent complaints of technical errors in the newly-launched e-filing portal, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had last month set September 15 deadline for IT major Infosys to rectify the problems. In a meeting with Infosys MD and CEO Salil Parekh, the Minister had also sought explanation for the repeated issues faced by taxpayers. As part of the Integrated E-filing and Centralized Processing Centre 2.0 Project, the government launched a new income tax e-filing portal. Total expenditure on the project over the next eight and half years is estimated at Rs 4,241.97 crore. From January 2019 till June 2021, the government had paid Rs 164 crore to Infosys under this project. The contract for integrated E-filing & Centralized Processing Centre (CPC 2.0) Project was awarded through an open tender to Infosys, the Managed Service Provider, on the lowest cost basis (L-1). One of the signature projects of the government aimed at easing compliance burden for taxpayers, the income tax e-filing portal has been disappointing.

Listing out the issues on the portal, an accounting professional working with a Delhi-based firm said that some of the features are working now but not efficiently. For instance, E proceedings tab and IT acknowledgements in PDF are working now but not efficiently. Also, DIN Number which was not getting auto populated in the new website is now showing but not resolved properly. “The issues have only been partly resolved and far from satisfactory. There are many glitches which we faced earlier are continuing. Mismatch in PAN data is shown when there is no mismatch. Old grievances registered earlier are not showing on the portal. There are several such issues but the system is slightly better now,” said Rajat Mohan, senior partner at AMRG Associates. In the face of difficulties faced by taxpayers and system glitches, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) had on August 29 extended the due dates for electronic filing of as many as 14 forms under the Income Tax Act.