Tax filers fume as IT portal faces technical glitches

Hyderabad: Users who are filing their Income Tax Returns are facing technical glitches. Many complained of the portal turning sluggish. They also complained of receiving OTPs late or not receiving at all. The OTP generated is valid for ten minutes only and as a result of receiving them late, the users could apply that to complete the transaction. #extend_due_dates-Immediately was trending on the microblogging platform Twitter. It has been tweeted more than 8,600 times. The last date for filing IT Returns is July 31.

Many tagged PMO, IncomeTaxIndia and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and IT services player Infosys to bring the technical glitches on the Income Tax portal to their attention.

The users also flagged other reasons like 26AS and the annual Information Statement (AIS) mismatch. Form 26AS is a consolidated annual tax statement that shows the details of tax deducted at source, tax collected at source, advance tax paid along with self-assessment tax.

This information is specific to a Permanent Account Number. AIS is the extension of Form 26AS. It contains details of the financial transactions that are undertaken by an individual irrespective of whether the tax is deducted or not on that income.

Some also said the 26AS was not updated. Also, the TDS and GST return filing dates were clashing.

“Be brave, speak against unjust and impractical timelines. Raise your voice against glitches in portal and slow speed. I believe you are not a coward,” said a user, who added revolutionary in his Twitter title. He bio said reads ‘author of more than dozen books on GST’.

“Income tax portal is on ventilator and may slip into coma any moment. Kindly give extension injection to the robust portal,” said another user.

According to the Income Tax Department, over 4.09 crore IT returns were filed till July 28. As many as 36 lakh returns were filed on Thursday.