Finance Minister sets September 15 deadline to fix glitches on tax portal

New Delhi : Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman held a meeting with Infosys CEO Salil Parekh on Monday and expressed "deep disappointment" over persistent glitches in the new Income Tax portal. She gave September 15 deadline to the company to resolve all issues.

Infosys CEO Salil Parekh was summoned to explain the glitches in the tax portal, following which he met with the Finance Minister and senior officials for more than an hour to explain the solution company is implementing to address the glitches.

The "summons" was announced after the portal remained unoperational for two days in a row. The Finance Minister emphasized concerns of the government and taxpayers about continuing glitches even two and half months after the site's launch - which, the minister pointed out, was also delayed. 

The government stressed that Infosys needed to invest more resources and efforts to cut the delay in delivery of agreed services. "Mr Parekh was also sensitized on the difficulties that taxpayers are facing and the problems that are arising on account of the delays in the functioning of the portal," an official statement said.

On Saturday, the company said the portal was "currently inaccessible due to planned maintenance". Yesterday, it cited "emergency maintenance" until around 9 pm, when it announced that the portal was up and running.