NEW DELHI: Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday urged Infosys Ltd. and its co-founder Nandan Nilekani to ensure the new income tax e-filing portal does not let down tax payers in service quality. Infosys has developed the new portal.
The portal was launched on Monday but many people took to social media to complain about not being able to reach the site. The finance minister said she has taken note of the grievances expressed in social media.
“The much awaited e-filing portal 2.0 was launched last night 20:45hrs. I see in my TL (timeline) grievances and glitches. Hope @Infosys & @NandanNilekani will not let down our taxpayers in the quality of service being provided. Ease in compliance for the taxpayer should be our priority," said a tweet from Sitharaman’s account, which was retweeted by the Income Tax Department.
An email sent to Infosys for comments remained unanswered at the time of publishing.
The intervention at the highest level, in response to social media feedback, indicates the importance it attaches to tax payer convenience. Infosys, which manages the IT infrastructure of GSTN, the company that processes GST returns, had faced flak earlier for the technical glitches tax payers faced. One issue the government last year brought to the notice of the IT major was the maximum concurrent sessions that is possible in the GSTN’s portal.
The Income Tax department seeks to offer enhanced and intuitive user experience to tax payers and is in the process of launching a mobile application soon. The new e-filing portal was developed on mission mode as part of the administration’s e-governance plan.
The portal promises several tax payer friendly features including immediate processing of tax returns for quick issue of refunds and an interactive software for easier preparation of returns.
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