Addressing the IT-portal mess
Even as Infosys has failed to fix the glitches in the new e-filing website of the income tax department three months after its launch, the clamour for reviving the old website gets louder. It would be a big setback for the government that swears by new technology and makes big claims of creating digital interfaces for ease of doing business and ease of living if it has to go back to the old website, even if it is probably the most viable option now. The government seems to be averse to the idea. The finance minister had recently said that reviving the old e-filing website was not the best option the government had as many features required for filing new ITRs were missing in the earlier website. The government, meanwhile, has again extended the dates for several tax-related compliances due immediately (in August/September) as well in November and December. The extensions, it seems, are more to save the government from further embarrassment than to give relief to taxpayers.
The e-filing website experience demolishes the perception that onboarding a private player alone would make things go smoothly. It did not in the case of the e-filing website. The experience with the GST network portal, which has also been developed by Infosys, was no better, if not worse. Taxpayers are now blaming both the finance ministry mandarins and Infosys for hurrying through the launch of the new website without proper testing and trial runs. And with compliance dates getting nearer, tax professionals as well as taxpayers are running out of patience.
The I-T portal is not a social media platform that can afford frequent outages and technical glitches. It is the backbone of the economy, given the fact that virtually all tax-related compliances are now done online. If Infosys fails to fix it on time, it may impact the government’s revenue collection when it is already facing a severe funds crunch. Maybe it would be better for the government to pay heed to the demand for reviving the old website instead of trying to fix the new one in a hurry.