46.4 million income tax returns filed amid portal glitch complaints

With just three days left for the deadline of income tax returns (ITR) filing for financial year 2020-21 (assessment year 2021-22), around 46.4 million tax returns have been filed, a top government official said. This comes even as there were many complaints on social media by filers regarding glitches in the income tax portal, which is being maintained by Infosys.

“We have had 129,000 filings just in the last hour (till 8 pm) and will cross 1,600,000 filings on Monday. There have been more than 46.4 million returns filed so far for AY22,” the official told Business Standard.

A second official said the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) and Infosys were constantly monitoring the portal as well as the complaints on social media. 

The official said that in many cases, issues were occurring not because of any glitches but because the filers had entered incorrect details or wrong one-time passwords (OTPs).

On Monday, ‘#Extend_Due_Date_Immediately’ was trending on social media platform twitter. Many users, who identified themselves as chartered accountants, posted photos and screenshots of the glitches. Most of these were regarding how users filled all the details, yet their ITRs were not being accepted.

Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) president Nihar Jambusaria was not available for comment. 

However, a representative of the body said it was monitoring the situation as well and would be in touch with the finance ministry.

Against the backdrop of Covid, the government had extended the date of filing income tax returns for AY22 to December 31, 2021, from July 31, 2021.