Aashish Sehrawat
Credit: Republic World
On June 7, 2021, the new income tax e-filing portal was launched by the government. The portal was launched as part of the Integrated e-filing and Centralized Processing Centre 2.0 Project.
“The contract for Integrated e-filing & Centralized Processing Centre (CPC 2.0) Project was awarded through an open tender published on Central Public Procurement Portal (CPPP) to Infosys Ltd, the Managed Service Provider on the lowest cost basis.”
Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary, said that the Union Cabinet gave its approval for this project on January 16, 2019. The contract is bound for a period of 8.5 years, at an outlay of Rs 4,241.97. The contract includes payout to the Manager Service Provider, GST, rent, postage, and project management costs as well.
Mr. Chaudhary informed the parliament on Monday that the government paid Rs 164.5 crores to Infosys for building this portal between January 2019 and June 2021.
“Since January 2019 till June 2021, the total amount paid to Infosys is Rs 164.5 crore under this project,” Mr. Chaudhary said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.
Chaudhary also acknowledged the glitches and slowness of the portal faced by people and told the cabinet that Infosys is working on resolving all these issues tirelessly.
“Infosys has acknowledged the technical issues in the functioning of the portal. The Income Tax Department is continuously engaged with Infosys to expedite the resolution of any pending issues. The project is governed by the contract between the Income Tax Department and Infosys Ltd in respect of any glitches impacting the terms and conditions of the contract,”
The tax department is taking corrective measures through Infosys based on feedback from taxpayers, tax professionals and representatives of Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), Chaudhary added.