I-T portal mess: Govt gets tough on Infosys; sets deadline to fix glitches

After being 'summoned' by the Finance Ministry for consistent glitches in the Income Tax portal, Infosys's top management, including CEO Salil Parekh and COO Pravin Rao, who met Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, has been given the September-15 deadline to resolve issues with the web portal.

In a release following the meeting with the company, the Finance Ministry said it sought explanation on the continuing glitches in the e-filing even after two and half months since its launch and suggested that more resources and efforts must be invested on the part of the company. Salil Parekh, in turn, has assured to work expeditiously to ensure a glitch-free experience to the taxpayers, with the COO personally overseeing the project, the ministry statement said.

Since its launch, the glitches and downtime in the new income tax portal have been a major concern for tax professionals. Infosys COO Pravin Rao, who has been overseeing the project during the company's quarterly earnings call, said many issues around performance and stability have already been addressed. "On an average, we have 8-10 lakh people signing on to the portal and doing various activities," Pravin said. "While the newer functionalities like e-proceedings, TDS returns, forms, and ITR are active on the portal, we have to address some intermittent issues we face in some of the available functionalities. At the same time, we also have to roll out new functionalities," he said.

Infosys has never spoken in detail about the troubled GST and Income Tax portal contract. MoS Finance Pankaj Chaudhary, in a reply to a question in the Lok Sabha on July 26, said: "Since January 2019 till June 2021, the total amount paid to M/s Infosys Ltd is Rs 164.5 Cr under this project."
 
A source familiar with the matter said the margins on such contracts are very low. Also, a good portion of the overall contract is based on milestones.  "When looked at the level of complexity, and frequent changes being made on the go, projects can't be an ongoing experiment for either of the parties," the source said.

While the new income tax e-filing portal was a part of the Integrated E-filing and Centralised Processing Centre 2.0 Project, the Union Cabinet approved the project in January 2019, with an outlay of Rs 4,241.97 crore. The total contract period was 8.5 years, including payout to the Managed Service Provider (MSP), GST, rent, postage, and project management cost. Infosys won the contract based on the lowest bidding. 

Also Read: Resolve tech issues related to tax filing portal by Sept 15: Sitharaman tells Infosys

Also Read: Govt summons Infosys CEO Salil Parekh over continued glitches on I-T portal