The new IT portal continues to face tech glitches
Bringing utter shame, after the non-working of the newly opened Income Tax portal for seven days, the Income Tax Department on Monday allowed the manual filing of certain forms. The new IT portal designed and operated by Infosys after bagging an Rs.4200 contract continued to face tech glitches even after a week of its launch. Many taxpayers complain that they can’t even log in to the new portal.[1]
The IT department issued a circular allowing manual filing of Form 15CA/15CB (required for foreign remittances) with banks till June 30, so that business transactions can go on. The forms will be uploaded online on the e-filing portal later, it added. The new portal, www.Incometax.Gov.In, was launched last Monday (June 7), with the tax department, as well as the government, saying it was aimed at making compliance more taxpayer-friendly. Even Finance Minister fumed at Infosys and its head Nandan Nilekani for the glitches[2].
Nangia & Co LLP Partner Shailesh Kumar said due to the shutdown of the old e-filing portal post-May 31, 2021 and technical snags being faced with the new portal, filing of online Forms 15CA and 15CB have not been possible till now.
But users complained of technical issues from the very first day and not everything has been fixed even after a week, chartered accountants (CAs) said, adding that taxpayers are unable to view past e-filed returns and many features/ facilities continue to be marked ‘coming soon‘. In a statement, the Income Tax Department said, “In view of the difficulties reported by taxpayers in electronic filing of Income Tax Forms 15CA/15CB on the portal www.Incometax.Gov.In, it has been decided that taxpayers can submit the aforesaid Forms in manual format to the authorised dealers till June 30, 2021.” The IT department also advised authorised dealers to accept such forms till June 30, 2021, for the purpose of foreign remittances.
“A facility will be provided on the new e-filing portal to upload these forms at a later date for the purpose of generation of the Document Identification Number,” the statement added. Any person who needs to make a foreign outward remittance needs to file an online form/ declaration in Form 15CA specifying the nature of the transaction and the amount of income tax deducted on such foreign remittance.
Citing a series of the problem with the new portal, Karnataka Taxpayers Association Zafarulla Sattar Khan said that Ministry of Finance must return back to the old Income Tax filing portal facilities and make it easy and friendly to the taxpayers as before. In a statement, he said that by spending Rs.4242 crore on the new Income Tax portal, Finance Ministry created a critical situation for the taxpayers of India. He pointed out that Infosys’ Rs.1380 crore spent GSTN portal and the current Rs.4242 crore spent IT portal are becoming a pain to the uses[3].
“Now new Income Tax portal filing portal is very much difficult and complicated. Ministry of Finance issued 998-page guidelines to make understand how to use this new portal. Just think how much it is complicated,” he said.
Nangia & Co LLP Partner Shailesh Kumar said due to the shutdown of the old e-filing portal post-May 31, 2021 and technical snags being faced with the new portal, filing of online Forms 15CA and 15CB have not been possible till now. “This had created a significant hardship for businesses, which required payment to be made outside India, for placing the orders or for obtaining licenses or meeting their commercial obligations.
“However, banks were not permitting foreign remittance, for want of Form 15CA/15CB. This practical problem had brought many business transactions on a standstill,” Kumar said. Realising the hardships of businesses, the government has issued this circular allowing manual filing of Form 15CA/15CB with banks till June 30, so that business transactions may go on despite the technical snags in the new e-filing portal, he added[4].
References:
[1] Neither easy, nor friendly! Income Tax e-filing new portal continues to face glitches; some features yet not functional – Jun 14, 2021, Financial Express
[3] Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman fumes at Infosys for glitches in Income Tax portal – Jun 14, 2021, PGurus.com
[3] Even after creating chaos in Company Registry & GSTN, Infosys bags Govt. contract worth Rs.4242-crores for Income Tax processing project – Jan 17, 2019, PGurus.com
[4] Income Tax Dep relaxated electronic filing of Income Tax Forms 15CA/15CB – Jun 14, 2021, Faceless Compliance
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We need to trust our Organisations. Softwares do have initial glitches, even new users of SAP which is the most used ERP in the world face initial teething problems. Infosys will do justice to their job.
Very sad and it is better to stop claiming India as a BACK OFFICE OF THE WORLD !
If I am not wrong, a failed database module in USA which Nandan Nelikani used it for Aadhaar in India and unfortunately Infosys now also lead by him was given GSTN and IT depts projects at big costs and its users have been suffering endlessly.In fact Majboot Sarkar kept everyone “busy’ while all UPA’s two terms and seven years of NDA regime NPAs have been waived off or written off ! If this continues like this pre -2013-2014 vital massive data may not be available or gets deleted!! Swacha Bharath Abhiyan may be under way in MoF and PMO to protect many!!
India is IT Super power for it brings down all new website. That is why I once again say, India a banana republic. Nothing works in India, they are all designed to fail by default
Sunak’s pop in law’s company is responsible,