Salil Parekh, the CEO and MD of Infosys receives a summon from the Finance Ministry seeking information and a valid explanation about the failure to rectify the ongoing errors in the e-filing portal. Despite the numerous reports of errors and glitches, the company has not exhibited any progress in rectifying the same, which has finally led to an open questioning by the Finance Ministry.
Ministry of Finance has summoned Sh Salil Parekh,MD&CEO @Infosys on 23/08/2021 to explain to hon'ble FM as to why even after 2.5 months since launch of new e-filing portal, glitches in the portal have not been resolved. In fact,since 21/08/2021 the portal itself is not available.
— Income Tax India (@IncomeTaxIndia) August 22, 2021
The What and Why
The e-filing portal contract was given to the company back in 2019, and it was a step in the direction of modernizing the whole tax-paying process. However, from the developments at the moment, it can be seen that things did not go exactly as planned. Although it was started with a lot of expectation and excitement, it has all ebbed away as users began experiencing inconvenience from the very first day. After all, as the saying goes, “the first impression is the best impression” and it seems like Infosys failed to make one. And worse still, they couldn’t take a step towards rectifying the persistent errors that completely annulled all the potential that could have been amassed from the idea of a modern e-filing portal. Even after two and half months of its launch, the problems and glitches are still in place. They haven’t gone away or rather they have gotten worse with time. And now, it has touched a saturation point as the portal is completely unavailable to the users. Not to sound rude, but a disappearing act is the last thing Infosys needs at the moment. And apparently, the disappearing scenario has led to the Finance Ministry asking the MD to appear with a credible explanation for all the errors.
A few days prior to this, Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman had assured that the problems related to the portal will be rectified in a “few days.” Seems like their idea of “few days” and our idea of “few ideas” is completely different. Ever since the summon was passed, Twitter has been flaring up with reactions and responses. Let us take a look.
Yes, time to up the game because people have been let down for long enough.
Indian Tech Cos working on critical Govt tech solutions , must consider these projcts as SPECIAL responsbility n deploy their best teams – these are important bcoz these projcts impact people of India.
Cmon @Infosys – time to up ur game n do a good job ✅@nsitharaman https://t.co/zDofgwefsY
— Rajeev Chandrasekhar 🇮🇳 (@Rajeev_GoI) August 22, 2021
It is not a coincidence. Either that or they have really got the coincidence game right.
This is the second major GoI project @Infosys has messed up. The first was #GST portal. Now it is #IncomeTax portal. Infosys bags GoI projects using L1 route which limits options Clearly lacks either capacity or intent to deliver. Two 'failures' in a row cannot be coincidence. https://t.co/6Y1kXQSxXr
— Kanchan Gupta 🇮🇳 (@KanchanGupta) August 22, 2021
Why Government does what it does half of the time is a topic for another discussion, for another time.
All Govt portals of Infosys is a such disaster …GST, MCA, now new Income Tax portal tooo… Why Govt giving this company so much contracts???? while TCS is handling MCA earlier and passport operations also very well https://t.co/67WweXCIjQ
— J Gopikrishnan (@jgopikrishnan70) August 22, 2021
Let us not go there. Because that will open another can of worms.
None of the so-called 'independent media' like The wire, The Print, The Caravan will cover the inefficiency of Infosys because they get funds indirectly from companies like Infosys via IPSMF. They hey are not independent.
— Vijay Patel🇮🇳 (@vijaygajera) August 22, 2021
Talk about covering up their flaws.
Infosys should immediately tweet something about secularism and freedom now. https://t.co/1QtjFaBHUU
— Rahul Roushan (@rahulroushan) August 22, 2021
Isn’t there something called business ethics? Or has that become a myth too?
Infosys grabs govt contracts by bidding the lowest, delivers an abysmal product, and then donates the earned money to portals like The Print, Alt News, Scroll etc. https://t.co/PB0n5d23lH
— Rahul Kaushik (@kaushkrahul) August 22, 2021
Yes, mental harassment is the right word. Because after a while of using those, you are just a few steps away from insanity.
There should be a heavy penalty on Infosys for mental harassment to lakhs of people while using IT websites.
Also, it has negative effects on our economy too.
Time to hand over this project to a small and actual Indian IT company.@nsitharamanoffc @IncomeTaxIndia pic.twitter.com/R9f7xQWqhu
— Vijay Patel🇮🇳 (@vijaygajera) August 22, 2021
Perhaps the government was taking the high road and giving them a “second chance” to shine. After all, it is only an e-portal that affects the whole country. Why bother.
When @Infosys messed up big time with GST portal, why they were awarded the IT portal project?
Penalise @Infosys heavily for putting millions into pain and inconvenience.
Don't award them any more government projects.@narendramodi @nsitharaman
— D.Muthukrishnan (@dmuthuk) August 22, 2021
Good question.
Why don't you just terminate the contract, go back to the old portal for a year and give it to someone else to build? And blacklist the Company. @Infosys messed up #GST portal big time and this seems to be an even bigger disaster. @nsitharaman https://t.co/g7MTI317RG
— Sumanth Raman (@sumanthraman) August 22, 2021
Such a shame for this IT behemoth that reports average profit of Rs 4500-crore every Qtr and clocked a revenue of more than Rs 27,000-cr in a Covid-hit year.
If GOI has to beseech them for doing the job that is company’s routine business, its a reproach.
Stop fleecing, Infosys https://t.co/CQFFe4jt9t
— Rohan Dua (@rohanduaT02) August 22, 2021