Infosys is involved in migration of a another website and like in the case of the MCA21 portal, this time too users are complaining about several issues with Traces, the new site of CPC and I-T department launched to simplify the TDS filing process
In November, Infosys, India’s most reputed IT company took over the management of the Traces website, and since then people are complaining about inaccessibility, login issues and also problems with downloading and checking Form16/16A as well as their annual tax credit statements of form 26AS.
In fact, yesterday morning, the Traces site, was down. And yet, the last line of the error message claimed "The website is not encountering any technical problem at the moment”! The site became alive only after 1pm. See the image below...
Traces, the new website for tracking tax deducted at source (TDS), launched by the Income Tax (I-T) department's Centralized Processing Cell (CPC) and managed by Infosys is giving nightmares to lakhs of tax payers, both individuals and companies. The I-T department’s TDS related services were shifted to the new site from the one managed by National Securities Depository (NSDL).
When Moneylife sent a query regarding issues faced by tax payers on the new site, Infosys, in an email reply stated that “We see you have already written to the ministry officials and they are best placed to respond to you on this matter.” We are waiting for a reply from the Directorate General of I-T (Systems) and would post it as and when we receive it.
The TDS CPC team of Traces, replied asking for email IDs and contact numbers of tax payers mentioned in our mail. In an email reply, the team said, “In order to identify the issue and subsequent action to be taken, it is requested you to please provide the contact details of each of the deductors. We will reach out to one of them individually to address their concern.”
But this is not the first time users are facing issues with Infosys and its takeover process. Infosys took over the Ministry of Corporate Affairs’ (MCA) portal MCA21 from Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) on 16th January. And there are still several issues with the MCA21 website. (Read MCA21 is down for a month after a handover of the management by TCS to Infosys. Why?)
Traces stands for TDS Reconciliation Analysis and Correction Enabling System and it is claimed that this new web-based application would provide more feature compared with the old site maintained by Tax Information Network (TIN) and NSDL (TIN-NSDL).
What is important to remember is that the government has forced ordinary taxpayers to take on the responsibility of deducting TDS and has imposed draconian penalties for non-payment. Also, whenever deductions of TDS are not reconciled with taxpayer’s records, the I-T department disallows the payment and adds it to income. The problems with TDS hence have enormous implications for ordinary persons and it is shocking that there are no answers forthcoming. The only reason there isn’t a bigger hue and cry over the matter is that people are too scared to ‘upset’ the tax authorities.
Here are some complaints from our readers as well from taxpayers posted over the internet...
“Earlier the TDS online system was maintained by NSDL, however from 1 November 2012, the new site has been named as TRACES, which is supposed to be maintained by Infosys. Since then the site is not working properly, consolidated files are available for FY2010-11 onwards, earlier year files are not available at TRACES, in NSDL regime form 16A was made available within 1-2 days after filing the TDS return, however in TRACES this takes about 15-20 days. Maxim revise return submitted after 31st October is still showing as under process at CPC.” —Banka
“We had filed many revise returns of our clients after 30 October 2012. But till date (24 January 2013) TRACES is not giving any consolidated file and changed Form 16A for those returns. I called them many times, but every time they are assuring that within a day or two it will be over. I don't know, is this the picture of Infosys service on behalf of IT dept. Income Tax dept should involve themselves to clear all these problems by war footing process.” —Amitabha Debroy
“We are unable to get the Form 16A for Q2 year 2012-13. When we request the same one message came that the data not available. Please help us as the vendor requires this form 16A badly.”—Golekha
“Traces is very difficult for us to deal with. We were all familiarised with TIN NSDL sites and now this change over put us in difficulties. Even though I give correct details it is showing invalid details. Our clients are asking for form 16A but we cannot generate it and we are wasting our time also. Very unhappy with this.”—Besy
“What is the issue with this new website, simply impossible to download TDS statement 26AS etc? Why migrate to a new set-up when the old one was working ok? Make changes in the existing one. Any ideas how can the form 26AS be downloaded/viewed?”—SPS
“I have filed the correction return in December 2012, even after a one and half month the status is under process by CPC. When I called Traces people they are not giving any deadline, even there is no notification or web massage for delay is provided. How to answer deductees without any notification or message from Traces. Even Traces is not responding to mail sent by us. Any one has any notification in this regard please share it.”—CA RAMACHANDRA SHARMA
“When the new site Traces will come into operation perfectly. It is waste of time killing others time. Depute the higher income-tax official and show the site work how much efficiency. Please call the Honourable Finance Minister to show how the new Traces site is working. Even a fresher will create the site more efficiently than this.”—S THEYAGARAJAN
“TRACES site fully fake & totally waste of time. What type services Infosys is giving to people and itd. They are wasting the time of users. Please stop this USELESS TRACES site and enable old TIN NSDL site.” —sanjay
“The site is very erratic I managed to get the new password for two companies. But when I tried for the third Company yesterday, after filling in the required details and clicking ‘submit’ the screen shows ‘invalid details’. I tried several times, but same result. Also I am not able to download PDF Generator Utility.”—N. Gopala
In addition to issues like accessibility and uploading, the new system requires the taxpayer to download a special utility for viewing Form16/16A or Form26AS. The TIN-NSDL site used to provide a password-protected file, whereas on Traces, the user has to download a .zip (compressed format file) and then convert it into a pdf or portable document format file.
Unfortunately, downloading the utility is also not easy. Several people could not even download the PDF Generator software and are looking for alternate sites. Here are few reactions regarding the issue...
“Pls help me out how to download pdf convertor utility 1.1. Facing great problems, also tell the site from where it is available as Traces is not showing this utility for download. It is only showing the message to use this utility. Pls treat it as most Urgent.”—ruby
“Yes, I downloaded the PDF Generation Utility 1.1, it took me one day to download. TRACES said they will modify the PDF Generation utility file size 61MB to 10MB. If you want to download, please log in to TRACES and click DOWNLOAD- Requested Download and Click here option at the bottom of the page and it show two options, HTTP and download Manager, please click on download Manager.” —K Ganesh Nayak
“I have been trying since past three days to download the PDF Converter Utility from TRACES, every time download gets terminated due to session out. Is there any way to take it up with TRACES for their response on this? Please respond.”—Babu Balasingh
“I had downloaded the earlier version. But I have been unable to download the current version. The downloading starts but gets timed out and stops. Can we get this version on a CD from any of the TDS software providers like Fastfacts etc?”—N Gopala
In addition, for downloading the PDF Generator, the user needs to keep his session on Traces portal in active mode. Otherwise, he would have to download the PDF Generator again, unless he is using download manager software.
Even after downloading the latest PDF Generator, the taxpayer need to see if the operating system of his PC/laptop is updated and he has the latest (Internet Explorer 7 and above) version of Java installed. Also the user has to pass the zip file he downloaded for Form16/16A or Form26AS through the PDF Generator, instead of unzipping or opening the file. Only the PDF Generator utility can create the appropriate file and then after using either TAN or PAN number the user can view the file.
For opening the pdf file for Form26AS, the user need to provide TAN number along with his request number in typical manner. For example for a TAN number MUMB12345C with request number 1234, the password would be MUMB1234C_1234.
The malfunctioning of second site handled by Infosys however raises several questions. Due to the technical glitches on MCA21 portal, work done by thousands of chartered accountants (CAs) and company secretaries (CSs) has come to a half since last month. And this was not an expected event. The handover was planned full six months in advance and yet the MCA21 portal is breaking down without any explanation.
No wonder, s similar thing is happening with the TDS online system as well. First, they shifted the site on to a new system (Traces), and then they changed the processes as well. Tax payers have become familiar with the TIN-NSDL portal and it was working without much of an issue. It was changed to Traces in order to provide more features. But all the while the users were kept in the dark about the change in processes. This is leading to not just confusions but also causing physical and mental agony to lakhs of taxpayers.
“I have filed my regular returns, but all in vain. For first time validation, the site asks references of FY, quarter returns and form numbers. For other cases, latest accepted returns are taken as valid even if it is regular return or correction. We get the message ‘All is Well’ from the site. I think, Infosys would require some more time to get used to government schemes,” said one commentator.
Handling interactive portals is not rocket science and Infosys, one of the most reputed companies in IT and software, should have handled it with ease. But there is something wrong as the company seems to have goofed up the job for the second time. This also raises big question on the public-private partnership (PPP) module when the union government is keen to transfer subsidies worth crores of rupees online.
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WHAT A JOKER !!!!! We are supposed to download dropbox hosted where code might be altered to download spyware
idiot government department - idiot UP government - idiot modi government
complete morons !!
class 2 digital signature
I have been a RI and have been filing returns as RI. It requires me to register and when I try that it tells me that it does not recognise my PAN!!
Plse, Infosys, do a better job.
Umesh Kumar
[email protected]
I have tried to contact them but did not get any response.
Can someone guide me.
Thanks.
Ashok Kumar Jain
I am also an NRI and tried at least fifteen times to register. But every time I am getting the same response as you mentioned.
Can anybody help
Sunil
I am also an NRI and tried at least fifteen times to register. But every time I am getting the same response as you mentioned
How did you manage to register ?
Disgusting!! Pathetic The IT babus & government only work for bribe
Really disgusting and discouraging.
Not too sure about the remarks "Transitioning a large application suite like MCA 21 at the best of times is complex. Successful transition depends upon the current state and stability of the applications and the full cooperation of both service providers. We believe that we have fulfilled all our obligations as per the contract".
In any technology project when the service changes hands, there has to be proper hand over and take over and there should be plans around the same.
also some Returns got rejected but on nsdl site it is showing under Process at cpc but on traces it is showing Rejected & the Worst Part is that Traces People themselves dont know th Reason for Rejection they will just say in a week u can check the Reason on website. we say why u are not prefeerd before you took the assignment why should we suffer this is the Worst thing that the Process has been shifted from Nsdl to Traces
Nsdl is the Best
Pl. help and clear the issue in Web site, so many companies facing this issue. pl. try to help in this regard
I think my issue with the TRACES site is unique. I went through most of the comments made here and do not see any similar issues.
The Form 16 provided by my employer has my name incorrectly populated. Now the PAN card, and all my past documents have the correct data but the Form 16 for the year.
On raising it with the Payroll Teams that assist me on the same I have been told that any manual intervention on the TRACES site is not possible from their end.
Post that I raised the same with the NSDL who directed me to the CPC. After constantly following up over a month with all the teams, I have been directed to a Facilitation Center where I have to pay for the correction and I will be reissued a new PAN card, which otherwise is all correct.
How is this justified? And another observation has been that no one concerned is able to guide us through this process in all these departments.
I think my issue with the TRACES site is unique. I went through most of the comments made here and do not see any similar issues.
The Form 16 provided by my employer has my name incorrectly populated. Now the PAN card, and all my past documents have the correct data but the Form 16 for the year.
On raising it with the Payroll Teams that assist me on the same I have been told that any manual intervention on the TRACES site is not possible from their end.
Post that I raised the same with the NSDL who directed me to the CPC. After constantly following up over a month with all the teams, I have been directed to a Facilitation Center where I have to pay for the correction and I will be reissued a new PAN card, which otherwise is all correct.
How is this justified? And another observation has been that no one concerned is able to guide us through this process in all these departments.
unable to download the tds consolidated file for TDS Nil return, Unable to download the consolidated file for the revised return already filed, unable to download the Form 16A of revised return and all other issues, one thing to be done that is you have to approached ABUSMAN OF INCOME-TAX DEPARTMENT. Automatically solve all your problems with traces
I am a Non Resident Indian and have been trying to access the site since last December. It gives me an error message "Site not available due to technical reason". I have tried it at various times during the day and it gives the same message. Is it that they have blocked the access from outside the Country?
Appreciate any help.
Regards
Mathew
Go to http://www.unblocked.in. Your Proxy page will open. Click on " Click Here For More Options" under the box. In the drop down menu un-tick " Remove client-side scripting.(I.e.javaScript). Now enter http://www.tdscpc.gov.in address in the box. TRACES Home Page open and you can now login if you are already registered with TRACES, otherwise you have to register for which you must have roaming Indian mobile number or you can give your some Indian mobile number who can forward you the activation code send by tdsintimation website.
No, they have not blocked the access from outside the country. The site is currently having technical problems. However its a temporary phase and the site should start functioning properly soon.- CA Vivek Ambekar. [email protected]
Thanks and regards,
Mathew
Raj Tandon
Regards
Mathew
HOWEVER, the said error message is not generated by Traces site, It is an error message generated by your web browser and it is asking you to make sure that "the site is not experiencing any tech. problems".- CA Vivek Ambekar
TCS was handling this contract since 2006, but later Infosys and the site ran into severe technical glitches post the handover. This created a panic situation prompting to bring in TCS as an external consultant for the contract. The result: TCS to work with Infosys in sorting out the issue! i dont this
i am from blue dart tracking here my website http://bluedarttracking.co.in
TCS was handling this contract since 2006, but later Infosys and the site ran into severe technical glitches post the handover. This created a panic situation prompting to bring in TCS as an external consultant for the contract. The result: TCS to work with Infosys in sorting out the issue!
Infosys has been quick to retort with a statement, rubbishing allegations of negligence at its end. Till date Infosys doesn't seem to have made Any significant changes to the system Infosys seems to be working to address all the challenges. Surprisingly TCS remains tight lipped, refusing to officially comment on the contract.
The link mentioned in your article is "https//http://www.tdscpc.gov.in/". Actually it should be "https://http://www.tdscpc.gov.in/".
Please update the link.
Thank You
With Regards
Santhanam
I believe you are referring to the MCA project handed over to Infosys. This article is about another project by the income tax department.
TCS is nowhere involved in this.
And yes, in IT sector, a new vendor surely faces some challanges.
Lets hope there are whistleblowers among well-paid IT professionals who will join us in exposing these dubious practices, which you describe in the IT world as being normal and standard. Let me say that most non-IT Indians will be shocked at your disclosure -- after all, IT experts have been held in high regard and revered.
In fact, the government has been naive enough to believe that another such IT big name is going to run a safe database of biometric IDs.
In Overseas projects, there are cases where when the projects are taken over by second vendor from the first vendor, the client insisting on the second vendor to take at least few key project personnel of first vendor(if not the whole team) for smooth transition of the project.
The reference made by Sreekanth is for MCA website handed over to Infosys by TCS.
I would beg to differ. In case of MCA, the same program was handed over from to TCS to Infosys.
In case of CPC, it is a new facility which is started by Infosys. NSDL was handling few operations but that was not a CPC which is currently the case.
Seems to me that Infosys is bidding low for projects in India and deploying people who are not capable of handling the job.
We have no cogent answers from Infosys except from sundry readers with pseudonyms who are aggressively defending it.
In fact, this is a new facility which the FM has dedicated to the country today.
http://www.deccanchronicle.com/130223/ne...
None of the good performers prefer to work on Indian projects, as 'Onsite' assignment would not increase their social status. So, if they can escape such projects, you bet they will do all they can.
On the other hands, these companies have come up with India operations & given them revenue targets, in some case even at low or zero margins, so they have to do whatever possible to hold on their divisions or shut them & quit...
"It is mandatory to update your 'Profile' to activate your account. "
When I clicked on the Profile tab, the message was...
"This feature is temporarily disabled for maintenance. We regret the inconvenience caused. Please try again after sometime"
So I would have to believe what others are complaining about.
2. Having said that, the NSDL site was another joke.
a. One needed to register a digital signature (DSC). Every time the DSC expired, or was renewed, a set of documents would have to be sent to NSDL. Very different from how Income Tax returns are uploaded using DSC.
b. The upload fee had to be paid in advance, and that through a bank deposit in NSDL A/c. No payment gateway.
c. The website and the Return Preparation software supported Bill Gates and his Windows only. Fans of Steve Jobs and users of Mac, or Open Source Linux had no chance.
d. The return preparation software was a hell of a nightmare.
e. To download one file or statement, one had to key in so much information even after securely logging in. Even banks do not ask so much information for NEFT / RTGS transfers.
f. Worse, the taxpayers were penalised for limitation in software.
3. What one needs to find out if the software company is at fault, or the babus in the tax department.
Blatantly posting articles, without proper research leaves a bad taste in mouth.
"It is mandatory to update your 'Profile' to activate your account. "
When I clicked on the Profile tab, the message was...
"This feature is temporarily disabled for maintenance. We regret the inconvenience caused. Please try again after sometime"
So I would have to believe what others are complaining about.
2. Having said that, the NSDL site was another joke.
a. One needed to register a digital signature (DSC). Everytime the DSC expired, or was renewed, a set of documents would have to be sent to NSDL. Very different from how Income Tax returns are uploaded using DSC.
b. The upload fee had to be paid in advance, and that through a bank deposit in NSDL A/c. No payment gateway.
c. The wesite and the Return Prepration software supported Bill Gates and his Windows only. Fans of Steve Jobs and users of Mac, or Open Source Linux had no chance.
d. The return prepration software was a hell of a nightmare.
e. To download one file or statement, one had to key in so much information even after securely logging in. Even banks do not ask so much information for NEFT / RTGS transfers.
f. Worse, the taxpayers were penalised for limitation in software.
3. What one needs to find out if the software company is at fault, or the babus in the tax department.
Your definition is quite funny. Tax payer is a common term used for both individual and companies and not for just salaried persons. By your definition, what would you call a businessman, who pay income tax? Is he tax payer or deductor? And FYI, companies also have to pay taxes.
I have many issues with the article you have written.
1. Please do a spell check before posting.
2. The website name is TRACES and not Traces
Now quoting your article...
- The website name is TRACES
In fact, yesterday morning, the Traces site, was down.
- So what if the site is down for maintenance, have you not seen this happen to other websites?
The TDS CPC team of Traces, replied asking for email IDs and contact numbers of tax payers
- Obviously, the team will not work on random queries, this is a mandate for most of the helpdesks, that they would need your details to identify problems. If you don’t believe me, call up customer care of your bank and see if you can even speak to someone without providing details.
What is important to remember is that the government has forced ordinary taxpayers to take on the responsibility of deducting TDS and has imposed draconian penalties for non-payment.
- This is completely false information, the tax payers are nowhere responsible of deducting TDS. It is the deductor’s responsibility. The website is provided to Deductors to perform their TDS related functions. Tax payers can login and view their 26AS details.
Even after downloading the latest PDF Generator, the taxpayer need to see if the operating system of his PC/laptop is updated and he has the latest (Internet Explorer 7 and above) version of Java installed.
- The utility is for the deductor, not the tax payer. Please do proper research before you post some rubbish. And the technical requirements were even present for using NSDL utilities, and installing Java is not rocket science, there is a complete tutorial provided on the website.
The malfunctioning of second site handled by Infosys however raises several questions.
- First, the site is not malfunctioning. There are some initial hiccups and because of which, no work has got to a halt (I hope you meant the same)
Tax payers have become familiar with the TIN-NSDL portal and it was working without much of an issue. It was changed to Traces in order to provide more features. But all the while the users were kept in the dark about the change in processes.
- Again, the portal is not for tax payers primarily, but for deductors. Plus, there are no process changes.
- Regarding the validations being put up on site, it is done to make your data more secure.
1. Traces is just a short form of TDS Reconciliation Analysis and Correction Enabling System. And Traces is just a web application as per its own site.
2. Yesterday the site was down was just an example. We agree a website may be down, but never heard the same for several days. This was one among thousands instances. And how many times, a website can be 'down' for maintenance?
3. The team was not asked to resolve individual queries, but resolve all issues with the site.
4. By your definition, companies or employers are not taxpayers?
5. TIN-NSDL used to send (you can download) password protected pdf file. Why the same cannot be used by Traces? Why the user is mandated to use additional piece of software?
6. Try downloading the software on an old machine and then share your experience. Same goes for Java. Just last month, many browsers advised users to disable Java. Have you even heard about it?
7. "It enables viewing of challan status, downloading of NSDL Conso File, Justification Report and Form 16 / 16A as well as viewing of annual tax credit statements (Form 26AS)." This is quoted directly from Traces site. Do you think Form16 or Form26AS are not related with taxpayers?
2. The maintenance part is not by choice by any service provider. Everytime there is a downtime, some new feature has come to the site. The PDF utility has now been shrinked to 10 MB from 61 MB.
3. You cannot call up the call centre or mail a generic issue and ask the people to resolve it. Please understand, the helpdesk will ask for individual information to resolve some issue.
4. Everyone is a tax payer, just that the roles are defined differently on the website for a 'Tax Payer' and a 'Deductor'. If you are writing an article about the site, it will be better if you can keep the nomenclatures and references intact.
5. The service provides works on the guidelines and directions of the Income Tax Department. You and I, having a ring side view of things, cannot say that why a certain process is not being followed. Please also note that NSDL also has multiple utilities (RPU, FVU) which are additional softwares and people are well versed with them. Coming to the PDF convertor, what would you prefer, downloading PDFs from internet which may result in many MBs or downloading a small text file and creating the PDFs locally.
6. I have downloaded all versions of the utility. Moreover, there are numerous users, blogs, forums where people have placed links to sites like dropbox where they have uploaded the utility
7. As I said earlier, functions for both tax payer and deductor are clearly defined on TRACES.
We are fortunate enough that Infosys has never developed a site like Google or Facebook or Amazon. Otherwise we wouldn't have been able to use it just because they are changing algorithms in the backend.
People write Sebi as well as SEBI. Sail as well as SAIL. But, of course, you are the last word