By Shivanand Pandit
This year has witnessed radical changes in the Indian income tax (IT) configuration. One of them is the introduction of the new IT portal. On June 7, with much hullabaloo, the refurbished portal was thrown open by the IT department. However, the gateway remained unreachable for the better section on its debut day. Almost a month later, nothing has changed and taxpayers are progressively becoming impatient.
In May 2021, while publicising the launching of its new e-filing portal the IT department mentioned that the new portal will be a “taxpayer-friendly portal”. It also stated that the portal would facilitate the processing of IT returns and help in issuing rapid refunds to taxpayers. Plus, all communication, uploads and unresolved activities would be shown on a single dashboard, it claimed. Additionally, to assist taxpayers, the software for preparing tax returns would be incorporated in the portal along with a new call centre for quick reaction to inquiries.
The prime reason for introducing the new portal was to have a gateway with elementary configuration and easy use. Therefore, the government entrusted the task to tech giant Infosys. In 2019, the entity was given the contract to develop the new IT portal in order to decrease the processing tenure from 63 days to one day. The total expenditure was Rs 4,200 crore.
Unfortunately, a few hours after the introduction of the portal, things began going downhill. Tax specialists resorted to Twitter to raise the flag about glitches, tagging the finance minister. This forced the minister to ask the co-founder and chairman of Infosys, Nandan Nilekani, to tackle users’ apprehensions. Though the company has said that it is working swiftly on this project with more than 750 people, even after approximately 90 days, many glitches remain, and the new portal has become a running comedy. The government had ordered its team to resolve the problems by September 15, 2021.
Similarly, the company’s work with the ministry of corporate affairs and GSTN (ministry of finance) has given a similar headache to many professionals and businessmen.
Some of the glitches with the IT portal has been the failure to create a one-time password or Pin for authenticating Aadhaar, hitches relating to password creation and inability to integrate historical data for previous returns. There are also mistakes in the calculation of interest, wrong catching of details from Form 16, failure to add particulars for tax exemption for trusts, failure to accept the tax return even days after submission, failure of the e-verification system, inability to capture the details from Form 26AS and lot of time in uploading the return.
Furthermore, the portal was not fully functional and complete at the time of introduction. Several features were absent and it was half-baked. There are manifold levels in the portal that should work in a cohesive manner for smooth transactions on the site. This has not occurred in the new portal. The government also failed to precisely outline the scope and introduced the portal in a hurry. This means that the gateway was far from ready before the introduction and it was launched hastily.
Another common problem faced by tax consultants is the poor performance of the e-proceedings utility. This is taxing for taxpayers who must file responses to questions raised by the IT department. They are also not able to upload any documents within a specified period. Also, due to the non-accessibility of online service for filing of Form 15CA or Form 15CB, those making foreign remittances are not able to file the prescribed forms. This has led to a major commercial impact.
Because of these glitches, tax professionals are batting for bringing the old portal, which was managed by TCS. However, this is not easy as it may give rise to new problems. Most of the data from the old portal has already been shifted to the new one and many have already begun filing them. If the portal gets reversed now, user information will go missing and a mismatch of details could create a major mess.
Other challenging issues are—requesting an adjournment in enduring assessments, complying with the “Vivad Se Vishwas” system and uploading the digital signature. Even though the government has delayed the due date for individual taxpayers to file their income tax return (ITR) to December 31, it is imposing a 1 percent interest for each month of delay beyond the original July 31 deadline. This has provoked queries about why they should be punished for the governmental fiasco.
The processing pace of the new portal is also time-consuming. In addition, ITR forms for companies, partnership firms and Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs) are still not available for filing. Due to numerous functional glitches, the user interface of the new portal is very difficult to use as it follows a step-by-step tactic. In the earlier portal, it was easy to fill in particulars on several tabs of the return form and fill them progressively till the time of filing. However, now in order to fill up the particulars, one can have immediate access only when the fields in an earlier step are filled.
Importantly, the style in which the government configures its technology schemes is also defective. For instance, most government technology contracts warrant the vendors to work as system integrators. This means they must not only offer the software and related services, but also arrange for hardware components, which comprise more than 50 percent of the total contract cost. Moreover, IT companies must pay the suppliers of the hardware upfront, but the payment from the government comes many months later.
The government should not levy interest for those taxpayers who have already paid their total tax liability if they file their tax returns within the prolonged time limit. The government should act fast and fix the hitches instead of only making grand statements about creating digital powers for ease of doing business and ease of living.
The fact is that the tax portal glitch is a blunder by both the government and Infosys. Therefore, making Infosys the only villain in the story is prejudicial. Two weeks before, RSS-affiliated magazine Panchjanya blamed Infosys for being anti-national. This is not a welcome trend. However, if Infosys fails to fix the problems of the portal on time, it may adversely influence the government’s revenue collection when it is experiencing a sombre funds crisis.
—The writer is a financial and tax specialist, author and public speaker based in Margao, Goa