Infosys says some users working to streamline the IT portal experience are facing difficulties.
IT major Infosys on Thursday acknowledged that some users are facing difficulties in accessing the Income Tax portal and assured that it is working expeditiously in collaboration with the Income Tax Department to further streamline the end user experience.
The Bengaluru-based company, which has come under fire for months after the portal’s launch in June, said it has seen a steady increase in usage over the past few weeks, with over three crore taxpayers logged into the portal. and successfully completed various transactions.
Infosys said, “Even as the portal makes steady progress with crores of taxpayers successfully transacting, the company acknowledges the difficulties that some users continue to experience and is increasingly working with the support of the IT department. are working to further streamline the end user experience.” a statement.
It said that over the past few weeks, there has been a steady increase in the usage of the portal with “the concerns of the taxpayers being progressively addressed”.
Till date, more than three crore taxpayers have logged into the portal and have successfully completed various transactions. Infosys said it “recognizes” the ongoing challenges being faced by some users and has engaged directly with over 1,200 taxpayers to better understand their concerns.
“The company is focused on rapidly resolving these challenges, working closely with the chartered accountant community to ensure that a comprehensive set of user scenarios are supported and fully tested prior to deployment.
Infosys is committed to make rapid progress and has currently dedicated over 750 resources for this project to complete the significant portion of the work in collaboration with the IT department officials.”
It further said that “Infosys is proud to partner with the Government of India and continues to work closely with various departments to accelerate the digital development of the country’s technology capabilities.”
In 2019, Infosys was awarded a contract to develop the next generation income tax filing system to reduce the processing time for returns from 63 days to one day and expedite refunds. The portal went live in June this year.
From the day it was launched, tax payers and professionals had reported glitches and difficulties in its functioning and many of these issues have persisted even after more than three months of the launch of the portal.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in a meeting with Infosys CEO Salil Parekh had expressed “deep dismay” over the persistent glitches and gave time till September 15 to resolve all issues.
Infosys in its statement on Thursday said that during the month of September, on an average, more than 15 lakh specific taxpayers have logged on to the portal on an average daily and more than 1.5 crore returns have been filed so far. It added that over 85 per cent of the taxpayers who have filed their returns have also completed their e-verification, primarily through Aadhaar OTP authentication.
“The portal is facilitating the filing of over 2.5 lakh returns on a daily basis and ITR 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7 are now available for filing. Most of the statutory forms have also been made available online. Many important statutory forms like 15G, 15H, EQ1, 10A, 10E, 10IE, DTVSV, 15CA, 15CB, 35 as well as TDS returns are being filed in large numbers.”
It added that more than 11.5 lakh statutory forms and over 8 lakh TDS returns have already been filed. Infosys, which is India’s second largest IT services firm, said taxpayer services like e-Proceedings, response to notices and demands, e-PAN services, DSC registration, and functionality for legal heirs have also been enabled.
“More than 16.6 lakh e-PANs have been allotted. 4.3 lakh DSC registrations and over 3.44 lakh e-action responses to notices have also been completed,” it reported.
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