Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman said Monday that the new income tax portal will be fully operational in two to three days, with any technical glitches affecting the portal being ironed out by contractor Infosys.
Since its introduction in early June, many critical functions of the tax portal had not been launched, and the minister admitted that there were “still some problems”.
“Income Secretary [Tarun Bajaj] has neutrally monitored the progress of the portal repair on a weekly basis. Nandan Nilekani [Infosys co-founder and chairman] keeps sending me messages with the words: ‘Here we are’, ‘I assure you …’ and ‘We will take care of this.’ Hopefully it should be ready in another two to three days, “said Ms. Sitharaman, emphasizing that she had urged Infosys with constant reminders not to” abandon taxpayers “.
When asked about discussions with Cairn to resolve the retroactive tax dispute, she said the Treasury Department was in the final stages of announcing regulations related to the amendment to the tax law to abolish the retrospective tax clause. “The critical features are already mentioned in the changes, but the rules have yet to be communicated,” she said, pointing out that Cairn may not answer a call to settle the dispute until afterwards.