'Don’t let taxpayers down': FM asks Infosys, Nilekani to fix glitches on new e-filing portal

Amid the complaints by users and tax professionals about glitches on the recently launched income tax e-filing portal 2.0, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has asked the Infosys and the company's chairperson Nandan Nilekani to fix the problems.

New Delhi: Union Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday asked India’s tech major Infosys and the company’s chairman Nandan Nilekani to fix glitches on the recently launched income tax e-filing portal.

In a response to a tax professional who shared the screen shot of the new portal which said ‘This site can’t be reached’ on Twitter, Sitharaman said: “The much awaited e-filing portal 2.0 was launched last night 20:45hrs. I see in my timeline grievances and glitches. Hope @Infosys & @NandanNilekani will not let down our taxpayers in the quality of service being provided.”

Notably, this message came just hours after she announced the launch of the portal and lauded the significance of the initiative.

“The much awaited e-Filing portal 2.0 went live at 20:45 hrs yesterday. An important milestone to make the compliance experience more taxpayer friendly,” she tweeted earlier today.

The income tax department on Monday launched a new portal e-filing 2.0 with an objective to make online filing of returns and tax payment easier.

The new portal, www.incometax.gov.in, replaces the 'http://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in' site, and can be accessed by taxpayers in various regional languages.

Infosys was in 2019 awarded a contract to develop the next-generation income tax filing system to reduce processing time for returns from 63 days to one day and expedite refunds.

Infosys had also developed the GST Network (GSTN) portal, used for GST payment and return filing. The software major had faced flak for slow functioning of the GSTN portal.

(With PTI Inputs)