The Centre on Tuesday extended to March 15 the deadline for filing Income Tax returns for assessment year 2021-’21. This is the third extension given by the the finance ministry since the original deadline of October 31.
In a statement, the ministry said the decision to extend the deadline was taken considering the “difficulties reported by the taxpayers and other stakeholders due to Covid-19”.
The difficulties in electronic filing occurred due to technical glitches on the Income Tax Department’s e-filing portal.
The portal, developed by Infosys, was launched on June 7 with a host of new features for taxpayers. The new website is aimed at reducing processing time for tax returns from 63 days to one day and expedite refunds.
However, users had complained about problems in using the portal since its launch.
On June 8, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had alerted Infosys chairperson Nandan Nilekani on Twitter about the glitches on the portal. In response to Sitharaman’s tweet, Nilekani had then said he expected the tax filing system to stabilise during the week.
As the glitches remained unresolved two weeks later, Sitharaman held a meeting with Infosys officials. She had, at the meeting, expressed concern about the problems faced by those trying to access the tax portal.
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