'Ask Infosys Team To Smoothy Run ITR Portal': CA's Dig At Narayana Murthy's '70-Hour Work Week'

Infosys is once again getting much criticism for developing a faulty tax filing portal that the company built for the Income Tax Department. As the July 31 deadline for filing the income tax return is approaching close, many chartered accountants around India are lining up to file the taxes. However, the government portal being not up to the mark, people have to wait long enough to file their taxes properly. Recently, a chartered accountant took a potshot at Narayana Murthy, the co-founder and former CEO of Infosys, on X over the matter.

In the post, the CA referred to Narayana Murthy’s comments about India having a 70-hour work week and wrote, “Narayana Murthy Saar, on your advice we, tax professionals, started to work more than 70 Hours per week. Ask your Infosys team to work at least one hour per week to smoothly run the Income tax portal. Thanks in Advance.”

This post soon raked in thousands of likes. Commenting on it, another person poked fun at Narayana Murthy and wrote, “70 hours also includes struggling with his IT support for 30 hours. He was wise enough to know this and informed the nation. A true nationalist who knows the strength of his development team.”

Someone else observed, “I had a lot of respect for Infosys but after seeing their income tax portal for the last 4 years, I lost all respect for this company. Even after 4 years can’t they provide a smooth user experience? Something seriously wrong somewhere which none of us are aware of.”

An user noted, “That’s the result of 70 hrs a week. Stress and other health issues kick in due to lack of sleep and social life. Productivity goes down the drain. Work-life balance is a thing. If you’re not able to meet your family commitments due to work, there’s an issue.”

Infosys was given the contract to develop the income tax filing portal by the Income Tax Department in 2021. Since then, many have criticised the portal for not working smoothly. In 2021, Deccan Herald reported that the Bombay Chartered Accountants Society wrote an open letter to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, informing her about 56 bugs on the portal. The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India also made a presentation before the Finance Minister and representatives from Infosys about the bugs.