IT Department Says Taxpayers Facing Issues Accessing E-Filing Portal, Infosys Taking ‘Proactive Measures’

As taxpayers face issues in accessing the e-filing portal, the Income Tax department on Saturday said software provider Infosys is taking "proactive measures" to deal with the 'irregular traffic' on the portal.

"It has been noticed that taxpayers are facing issues in accessing ITD e-filing portal. As informed by @Infosys, they have observed some irregular traffic on the portal for which proactive measures are being taken,” the I-T department tweeted.

The new e-filing portal www.incometax.gov.in, launched on June 7, 2021, had a bumpy start with taxpayers and professionals reporting glitches and difficulties in its functioning. Infosys was given the contract in 2019 to develop the portal.

More recently, the portal faced snags on the first anniversary of its launch and many users complained that they were unable to log in into the portal, while some complained malfunctioning of the search functionality.

The government has paid Rs. 164.5 crore to Infosys to build the new income tax e-filing portal.

Last month, Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) chairperson Sangeeta Singh revealed that an issue related to the search functionality and non-accessibility of the e-filing website had been detected. At the time, Infosys was directed to look into the issue and the company had confirmed it would resolve the issue on priority, according to Singh.

In August 2021, Infosys Chief Executive Salil Parekh was summoned by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, to explain why glitches were not resolved two and a half months after the launch of the new e-filing portal.

The Finance Minister had tweeted to Infosys and its co-founder Nandan Nilekani a day after the launch of the e-filing portal last year, asking for grievances and glitches to be resolved, and to "not let down our taxpayers".