Lok Sabha Question No. 2809 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-03-21
Subject: Technical Issues in Income Tax e-filing Portal
Ministry: FINANCE
Asked by: Hibi Eden, Rattan Lal Kataria

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF FINANCE DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2809

TO BE ANSWERED ON MONDAY, MARCH 21, 2022/PHALGUNA 30, 1943 (SAKA)

## TECHNICAL ISSUES IN INCOME TAX E-FILING PORTAL

## 2809. SHRI HIBI EDEN: SHRI RATTAN LAL KATARIA:

Will the Minister of FINANCE be pleased to state:

- (a) the details of income tax collection during the last three years and the current year, year-wise along with the details of e-portal made by the Government to collect income tax;
- (b) whether the Government has noticed that website glitches have been delaying income tax refund processing and if so, the details thereof along with the other technical difficulties like login problem and past income tax returns being faced by the taxpayers;
- (c)  whether the officials have asserted that the technical problems in the newly designed website had badly hit the process of income tax assessments as they were not able to smoothly access the data from back end and if so, the details thereof along with the measures taken to resolve the said technical issues; and
- (d) whether the Government or the service provider is answerable for the said website glitches if the service provider has failed to deliver the project for  development of new website for income tax returns and if so, the details thereof along with the accountability fixed/action taken in this regard?

## ANSWER

## THE MINISTER OF STATE IN MINISTRY OF FINANCE (SHRI PANKAJ CHAUDHARY)

- (a) Tax payments are made online through the tax payment portal maintained by NSDL on behalf of the Income Tax Department at the following address: https://onlineservices.tin.egov.nsdl.com/etaxnew/tdsnontds.jsp

The details about tax collections during last three years and the current year are as under:

| Financial Year            |   Direct Tax Collection (Net) |
|---------------------------|-------------------------------|
| 2018-19                   |                   1.13772e+06 |
| 2019-20                   |                   1.05068e+06 |
| 2020-21                   |              947176           |
| 2021-22 (up to 8.03.2022) |                   1.19111e+06 |

- (b) Glitches  were  observed  since  the  launch  of  the  e-filing  portal  on  7th  June  2021  and  the Department has taken corrective measures through service provider, Infosys, based on feedback from taxpayers, tax professionals and representatives of ICAI. As a result of the same, the filing of  ITRs  has  steadily  increased.  As  on  15.03.2022  over  6.63  Cr  ITRs  have  been  e-filed  by taxpayers.

Processing  of  filed  ITRs  is  done  by  Centralized  Processing  Centre  (CPC)  Bengaluru  as  a separate process. Duly verified valid ITRs are processed by CPC for determining the tax payable and amount of refund due, if any, to the taxpayer, and an electronic intimation is sent by e-mail to this effect. For AY 2021-22, CPC has processed more than 5.17 crore ITRs out of the 6.01 crore verified ITRs on the new system.

- (c) The  new  e-filing  portal  www.incometax.gov.in  is  the  interface  for  the  taxpayer  to  view  and respond  to  assessment  notices  issued  by  Departmental  officers.  E-proceeding  notices  may pertain  to  assessment,  penalty  or  appeal  etc.  Till  13.03.2022,  more  than  29  lakh  notices  were posted on the e-filing portal by the department to taxpayers and around 15.62 lakh response to these notices were received through the e-filing portal.
- (d) There  are  specific  provisions  laid  down  in  the  Request  for  proposal  (RFP)  for  Integrated  Efiling  and  CPC  2.0  project  and  the  contractual  agreement  between  ITD  and  the  Managed Service Provider (MSP) for failure to deliver the services as per agreed standards and timelines. Appropriate action is taken as per the provision of RFP and Contract between the department and MSP.

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