Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that an article in RSS-linked publication "Panchajanya" alleging a "conspiracy" behind glitches in the tax-filing website handled by Infosys was "not right".
The Panchajanya questions in a cover story in its latest issue whether an "anti-national" conspiracy was behind the glitches in the portal set up by the company.
"That wasn't right. I think they have also made a statement distancing themselves from whoever wrote it. I think that's not called for and rightly people have withdrawn from it. It wasn't right at all," Nirmala Sitharaman told CNN-News18 in an interview.
The Finance Minister also said the government was working with Infosys to fix the problem.
"I had called them twice and also drew the attention of Nandan Nilekani. They are working together with us and are also being helped by the Institute of Chartered Accountants. We have also brought in some tax experts to work with them. I am hopeful that Infosys will give us the product," she said.
Last month, Ms Sitharaman had summoned Infosys CEO Salil Parekh and, expressing "deep disappointment" with the nagging problems in the tax portal, had asked the company to resolve all issues by September 15 (Wednesday).
The Infosys CEO was summoned after the portal was shut for two days in a row.
Panchajanya's four-page cover story asked whether "anti-national power is trying to hurt India's economic interests through it".
The RSS or Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the ruling BJP's ideological mentor, has distanced itself from the piece.
Infosys was drafted in 2019 to develop the new taxpayer-friendly portal in an attempt to reduce the processing time from 63 days to one day and to enable smoother filing of returns.
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