Government Says Income Tax e-Filing Portal Stable Despite Peak Load, Confirms Penalties on Infosys for Past Lapses

The Government has informed Parliament that the Income Tax e-Filing portal has remained largely stable during the ongoing peak Income Tax Return (ITR) filing season despite a significant rise in taxpayer activity. Replying to an Unstarred Question in the Lok Sabha, the Ministry of Finance stated that while some taxpayers may occasionally experience temporary slowdowns during periods of heavy traffic, the portal continues to function efficiently with continuous monitoring and enhanced infrastructure.

The Government also confirmed that contractual penalties have been imposed on the Managed Service Provider (MSP), Infosys, for delays and performance-related shortcomings under the Integrated e-Filing and Centralized Processing Centre (IEC) 2.0 project.

Parliament Question on Technical Glitches in the Income Tax Portal

The issue was raised in the Lok Sabha through an Unstarred Question regarding persistent technical glitches, data processing errors, login failures and the accountability of the managed service provider responsible for the Income Tax e-Filing portal.

Responding on behalf of the Ministry of Finance, Minister of State for Finance Shri Pankaj Chaudhary outlined the Government’s assessment of the portal’s performance, the steps taken to strengthen the system and the contractual actions initiated against the service provider.

Government Says Portal is Handling Record Traffic

According to the Government, the CBDT e-Filing portal serves crores of taxpayers and experiences a sharp surge in activity close to statutory filing deadlines.

The Ministry highlighted that portal usage during 8-14 July 2026 was substantially higher than the corresponding period in 2025. During the week:

• Daily ITR filings crossed 12 lakh on the busiest day.
• Daily portal logins approached one crore.
• More than 1.6 crore combined portal activities, including ITR filing, logins, challan generation and Form 26AS access, were recorded on the highest traffic day.

The Government stated that the increase in load demonstrates the growing adoption of the digital tax filing system.

Temporary Slowdowns Possible During Peak Filing

The Ministry acknowledged that taxpayers may occasionally experience:

• Slower page response
• Intermittent delays
• Temporary technical issues during periods of exceptionally high concurrent usage

However, it maintained that these are transient issues arising from peak demand and that the portal continues to perform in a stable and efficient manner overall.

The Government added that a dedicated daily and hourly monitoring dashboard continuously tracks portal performance, including:

• User logins
• ITR filing volumes
• AIS and Compliance Portal redirections
• Payment gateway status
• Error codes
• Other operational indicators

Any technical issues reported are identified, escalated and resolved on a time-bound basis.

CBDT Strengthens e-Filing Infrastructure

The Ministry informed Parliament that several technical and structural improvements have been implemented before the current filing season.

Major measures include:

• Performance testing of the portal to support up to 1 crore ITR filings per day
• Expansion of compute, storage, memory, network capacity and bandwidth
• Hardware and software upgrades based on OEM recommendations
• Resolution of major infrastructure issues identified during previous filing seasons
• Round-the-clock infrastructure monitoring supported by a dedicated War Room
• Enhanced cybersecurity with upgraded firewalls and stronger DDoS and bot attack protection
• Better coordination with banks, RBI, UIDAI, NSDL, CDSL, ICAI, ERIs and other stakeholders to ensure uninterrupted service delivery

The Government said system performance continues to be reviewed in real time to provide taxpayers with a smooth filing experience.

Government Confirms Penalties on Infosys

The Ministry also disclosed that penalties have been imposed on Infosys, the Managed Service Provider for the IEC 2.0 project, under the contractual provisions governing the Income Tax e-Filing portal.

The actions taken include:

• Liquidated damages for failing to deliver the IEC 2.0 project within the original timeline in July 2020.
• Quarterly performance-based penalties imposed over 12 quarters for lower service level scores, including prolonged non-functioning and operational lapses.
• Penalties during FY 2025-26 for application outages affecting e-Filing services during the peak filing period.
• Additional penalties during FY 2025-26 where extension of filing deadlines was attributable to reasons linked to the Managed Service Provider.

Government Reiterates Commitment to Reliable Taxpayer Services

The Finance Ministry reiterated that continuous performance monitoring and infrastructure enhancement remain an ongoing exercise. While acknowledging that temporary delays may occur during periods of exceptionally high demand, it maintained that the Income Tax e-Filing portal has successfully handled significantly higher traffic this year and remains capable of supporting the growing number of taxpayers using the digital filing platform.

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