Taxpayers continue to face problems even as deadline to fix new IT portal gets over

According to Sandeep Bhalla, partner Dhruva Advisors LLP, the responses furnished on the old portal and its acknowledgement are often not available for download on the new portal.
For representational purpose. (File Photo)
For representational purpose. (File Photo)

Despite several extensions given to Infosys, the problems with the new Income Tax portal seems to persist. Even as the deadline for fixing the website ended on 15 September, the problems faced by taxpayers are far from over it seems, even if things have improved slightly.

Tax experts and taxpayers continue to point out multiple issues with the website. For example, complete TDS credit is not getting populated in the IT returns, Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) is being computed even where the assessee has opted for concessional tax regime.

According to Sandeep Bhalla, partner Dhruva Advisors LLP, the responses furnished on the old portal and its acknowledgement are often not available for download on the new portal.

“Taxpayers often relied on this facility on the old portal wherein the entire trail of notices/ submissions was readily available for future reference,” he says.

Then there are other issues related to uploading of digitally signed documents, insignificant space limit for attaching documents, missing of several key functionalities.

Sandeep Bhalla explains: “In spite of introducing a notification that intends to do away with digital signature while uploading submissions, taxpayers are facing issues in uploading documents which are signed with the digital signature registered on the portal.”

There are instances where the deadline for submitting response to notices issued by the IT department is looming and the portal is not recognizing the digital signature which is already registered.

While filing a response on the portal, the size limit to upload each attachment is capped at 5MB subject to an overall limit of 50MB per submission.

Several tabs which were available on the old portal and facilitated the convenience of the taxpayer are yet to find their way into the new portal. Tabs relating to reissuance of refunds, verification of outstanding demands, Forms related to the Vivad se Vishwas Act, verification of Document identification number, etc are still not functional.

Delhi-based chartered accountant Avinash Gupta told The New Indian Express that there have been no improvements in the website except for individual returns filers.

It is to be noted here that difficulties faced by taxpayers due to technical glitches in the e-filing website of the tax department had forced the government to extend the due dates for filing of income tax returns by three more months from 30 September 2021 to 31 December 2021.

Earlier also, the government had extended the date of filing returns from 31st July to 30th September.

Apart from income tax returns, the due dates for several other direct tax-related compliances have also been extended. The due date for furnishing of returns for the assessment year 2021-22, has been extended from 31st December 2021 to 28th February 2022. The last date for filing revised returns for the Assessment Year 2021-22 has been extended from 31st January 2022 to 31st March 2022.

The finance ministry had in August summoned Salil Parekh, managing director and CEO of Infosys, which had developed the new website, to explain to the finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman as to why they cannot fix the glitches once and for all.

The decision to call Parekh came after the website stopped working on 21 August, and the website has been under maintenance since then. The finance ministry had given Infosys time till 15 September to fix the website.
 

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