June 10, 2023

New Income-Tax E-filing Portal: Glitches Galore

By Ashwini Agarwal
First publised on 2021-06-14 10:48:51

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It is worrisome that even a week after the new portal was launched by the I-T department, it continues to be plagued by numerous glitches. Some of the glitches were flagged the same day on social media and finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman was constrained to tag Infosys in a social media post highlighting the problems being faced by taxpayers and tax professionals in accessing or working on the portal. Nandan Nilekani, the Infosys chariman, had even replied to her post promising help. But it seems that the team at Infosys is taking longer than expected to rectify the glitches.

Meanwhile, taxpayers and tax professionals are finding themselves in a soup. They are worried that they will be held defaulters and penalized for something that is beyond their control. Among other problems, it is reported that the new portal is not allowing Forms 15CA and 15CB to be uploaded and this is resulting in overseas payments being upheld. Since several taxpayers are not able to login, they are worried that they will be penalized for not replying to notices sent by the department within due dates. Also, firms or companies that have been newly formed are unable to register.

It is expected that a new portal of the size and magnitude of the efiling portal of the I-T department will have some glitches initially. But what is not expected is that a company like Infosys will not be able to rectify them in a week. If the problems persist, the I-T department will have to ensure that taxpayers are not penalized for any action they were not able to carry out due to this. Meanwhile, the glitches must be rectified soon.