The new income tax portal is becoming a nuisance for the taxpayers, tax professionals as well as the government.
The government has paid more than Rs 164 crore to Infosys for setting up this portal to ease the hassle of taxpayers and complete the return process in less time. But since its launch in June, the problems of the portal are not decreasing. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has also instructed Infosys several times regarding this. Also Read: Investors investing in Nuvoco Vistas suffered losses, shares listed at 17 percent discount
The Finance Minister had also held a meeting with Infosys officials in June after receiving complaints from taxpayers and tax professionals. In this, an assurance was given by Infosys to remove the problem of the portal. However, even after two months, the problems have not subsided. Infosys was awarded the contract in 2019 to develop the next generation income tax return filing system. The motive behind this is to reduce the process of checking income tax returns from 63 days to one day. The government has paid Rs 164.5 crore to Infosys from January 2019 to June 2021.
Finance Minister has held a meeting with rights
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman held a meeting with Infosys officials on June 22 to review the problems being faced in the income tax portal. Pankaj Choudhary, Minister of State for Finance, in a written reply in Parliament, had informed over 700 details of over 2,000 issues including 90 issues/problems in the portal on behalf of various stakeholders including Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), tax professionals and taxpayers. More e-mails were received. Infosys has been instructed several times for this.
Website sluggish, but quick to send notices
The Income Tax Portal in the country may not be working properly but the data analytics system of the Income Tax Department is fully functional and penalty notices are also being sent to the people in tax matters. According to information received by India through sources, out of such taxpayers whose email system is not updated, about 40-45 thousand people across the country have been sent notices on behalf of the department.
Notices being sent to the address if the e-mail is missing
In about 25 per cent of these cases, the department does not have the e-mail address related to such people. This is the reason why notices are being sent to those people at their address. Sources have also said that the purview of the notice also includes professionals who are exempted from tax in many cases and have filed returns on the same basis. Through the system, it was learned that he has not given full details of income from other sources to the Income Tax Department. After scrutinizing the matter, the authorities have imposed a fine on him.
Facing these problems
The tab related to e-processes is not fully working. Online correction option is not available. JSON facility is not available for filing Income Tax Return in 5, 6, 7. Like the previous website, this portal does not have any tab to give comprehensive information about Vivad se Vishwas. Also there is no information about pending action tab. Income Tax experts say that the Form 15CA/CB utility related to remittance is not available. Though it is allowed to be filled in physically, it is quite a time-consuming process.
