New Delhi, Aug 22 (IANS): The Ministry of Finance has summoned Infosys MD and CEO, Salil Parekh on Monday over continuing glitches in the new income tax e-filing portal.

In a tweet, the Income Tax Department also said that the portal is not available since Saturday, August 21.

Parekh has been summoned to explain to the Finance Minister the reason for the persistent glitches in the portal.

"Ministry of Finance has summoned Sh Salil Parekh, MD & CEO @Infosys on 23/08/2021 to explain to hon'ble FM as to why even after 2.5 months since launch of new e-filing portal, glitches in the portal have not been resolved. In fact, since 21/08/2021 the portal itself is not available," the department said.

The new income tax e-filing portal developed by Infosys was launched on June 7 in a bid to ease the tax filing process and expedite the refund issue.

However, taxpayers have been facing several problems in using the portal since its inception.

In July, the Union Finance Ministry asked the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) to constitute a seven-member task force to look into the technical issues facing the new Income Tax e-filing portal developed by Infosys.

In line with the directive, the ICAI constituted a team to analyse the issues.

During the recent Monsoon Session of Parliament, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha that Infosys has been paid a total of Rs 164.5 crore under the project.

He had said the government launched the new income tax e-filing portal as part of the Integrated E-filing and Centralised Processing Centre 2.0 Project.