Infosys Observes ‘Irregular Traffic’ On Income Tax Portal; Govt Notified, Proactive Measures Being Taken

The Income Tax Department issued an alert on Saturday that taxpayers were having trouble using the ITD e-filing platform.

The portal’s maker Infosys informed that they have seen some unusual traffic on the platform, for which preventative steps are being implemented.

The portal went live last June.

Since then there have been multiple complaints from taxpayers and officials about bugs and flaws with the functionality of the portal.

Having to go back to manual

Its June 2021 debut was so badly botched that within a week of launch the government reverted to manual tax filings.

Infosys CEO Salil Parekh was summoned to government offices to explain the situation. 

Interestingly, despite Infosys’ failings, the company decided in late May to extend Parekh’s term as CEO.

Forced to extend return filing deadline

Technical problems started affecting taxpayer services eight days after the launch.

As a result the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) had to extend the deadlines for filing tax returns in order to re-develop the website through Infosys,

Then in September 2021 the government’s deadline for Infosys to fix the problems with the portal expired.

Complaint issues

However, the problems persisted. 

Users complained of ongoing issues with filing returns, including delayed pre-validation by banks, difficulties registering digital signature certificates, inability to file adjournment in ongoing assessment cases, failure to reissue refund requests, and errors in e-verification.

The government paid Infosys Rs 164.5 crore for the contract given in 2019.

The IT giant has been able to solve the portal’s bugs since last year.

Another stumble on day of anniversary

However, as recently as June 7th, the e-filing site faced a new Issue pertaining to the search functionality.

Coincidentally, that was also the date of the first anniversary of the portal since its launch.

Users complained about problems accessing the I-T portal and reported that it had been hacked.

Infosys was said to be resolving the issue “on priority” and assured that there were no cybersecurity problems.

Return filing deadline reminder

The public should know that the income tax return (ITR) filing deadline for the financial year 2021–2022 is July 31, 2022.

If the deadline is missed, a penalty of up to Rs 5,000 would be imposed. 

This deadline is applicable to taxpayers whose accounts, according to the Income Tax Department, do not need to be audited.

Important documents

The procedure to file the ITR varies based on income earned per year and income sources like salary, business profit, etc. 

To make sure the process goes smoothly, keep all required documents handy. 

Some of them are copies of PAN card, copy of Aadhaar card, and bank statement/passbook.