I-T portal faces fresh glitches; CBDT chief assures no breach of data

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has asked Infosys to fix the search-related glitches reported on Tuesday on the tax-filing portal a year after its launch.

This comes after the Income-Tax (I-T) Department got complaints about search functionality on the portal and also that it had been hacked and might pose risks to security.

“It was reported that someone tried to get into the portal. We immediately asked the service provider (Infosys) to look into the concerns raised and fix them on priority,” CBDT Chairperson Sangeeta Singh said on Tuesday on the sidelines of a departmental function.

The CBDT chief said the initial report from Infosys showed there was no breach of user data.

Tuesday was the first launch anniversary of e-filing portal 2.0. It went live on June 7, 2021, and has had a bumpy start since the beginning with taxpayers reporting technical hiccups.

Infosys was given the contract to develop the tax portal.

Earlier in the day the I-T Department acknowledged the issue and posted a tweet stating the “issue relating to the search functionality of the e-filing website has come to our notice. The Income-tax department is seized of the matter. Infosys has been directed to look into it and Infosys has confirmed that they are resolving the issue on priority”.

In the past year, the new portal faced difficulties on several occasions, which prompted the government to extend the date of filing tax returns and related forms for taxpayers.

The new portal had replaced the earlier version, with additional features to reduce the time required to process income-tax returns and issue refunds.

Since its launch, the finance ministry and tax department have been reviewing the system and its functioning with Infosys regularly.

Infosys was awarded the contract in 2019 through a bidding process, with an outlay of Rs 4,241.97 crore. With this project, the I-T filing system was supposed to be managed completely by Infosys. The project was to be completed in 18 months and launched after three months of testing.

While reviewing the progress of the portal, Infosys was recently asked to increase the scope for pre-filled data in income-tax return forms.

“A majority of the issues have been fixed. Only a few matters still remain, and they will be addressed soon,” a senior government official said.

The government is learnt to be keen on expediting the new payments system of the portal and roll it out in the current fiscal year. This would allow tax payment through many options, including credit cards and the Unified Payments Interface (UPI).

Bumpy Ride Persists

• Malfunction reported in ‘search’ function
• Hacking and security risk suspected
• CBDT, I-T have taken cognisance of issue
• Infosys asked to fix glitches on a priority basis