New IT portal 'created mess', 'failed' to attain objective, says Tharoor

Slamming the Centre over the reported glitches in the new Income Tax portal, senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Tuesday said that even after spending Rs 4200 crore, the government 'failed' to attain the objective and 'created a mess' instead.

Taking to Twitter, the Thiruvananthapuram MP said that Chartered Accountants in All India Professionals Congress (AIPC) informed him that the change of Income Tax Portal has been "disastrous", with glitches including "longer-than-usual log-in times".

"Almost all features of the new portal are non-operational, so ITR filing, 15 CA/CB forms, data prep for appeals has ground2halt," he tweeted.

Saying that he is "not clear" why the Centre chose to change the income tax portal in June, Congress leader suggested that it would have been "wiser just before the end of the Financial Year or the start of the next one so that taxpayers eligible for income-tax refund could have received help in these difficult times."

He raised questions on the need for an Income Tax portal when the "old portal was running smoothly for years" and asked, "Why was the Portal switched at peak time when Income tax payers usually file their returns and claim refunds? Why was no testing of the new Portal done before its launch?"

"The rationale for a new portal is to provide a more user-friendly, modern and seamless experience to users. However, even after spending Rs 4200cr on its renovation, the Govt has failed to attain the objective and created a mess instead. This is a replay of the chaos with the GST portal," Tharoor tweeted.

He noted India has very few taxpayers per capita and "a culture of tax evasion and black money."

"This must be the first time in history that Indian taxpayers who want to pay their taxes are not able to pay because the IncomeTax portal is not working! Penalties should be imposed and heads roll," he added.

Tharoor's reaction came a day after the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has granted further relaxation in the electronic filing of Income Tax Forms 15CA/15CB till July 15.

In view thereof, taxpayers can now submit the said Forms in manual format to the authorized dealers till July 15, 2021.

Authorized dealers are advised to accept such Forms till July 15, 2021, for the purpose of foreign remittances. A facility will be provided on the new e-filing portal to upload these forms at a later date for the purpose of generation of the Document Identification Number.

In view of the difficulties reported by taxpayers in electronic filing of Income Tax Forms, 15CA/15CB on the official portal, it had earlier been decided by CBDT that taxpayers could submit Forms 15CA/15CB in manual format to the authorized dealer till June 30, 2021.

( With inputs from ANI )