India’s digital shift has made tax filing easier for millions who clear their dues every year. For honest taxpayers, smooth and reliable online services are not a luxury but a necessity, especially with big tech companies managing them.
Despite this, accessing the Income Tax e-Filing Portal has become an annual ritual of browser refreshes and troubleshooting. Taxpayers scramble for fixes as deadlines loom, wasting time instead of simply filing returns.
Recent official advice asked users to “clear cache and temp files,” suggesting the fault lies with them, not the system. Many find this response outdated in 2025 and wonder why a $70 billion company still struggles with basic reliability.
People trying to do their civic duty end up fiddling with settings and browser modes rather than uploading documents smoothly. There is no proper outage page or status update to inform users what is wrong or when it will be resolved.
As deadlines approach, the site slows down or locks out users completely, precisely when it must work best. This creates panic and frustration for those who wait until the last day to file returns.
The demand for a deadline extension is not about shirking responsibility but about fairness when technical issues block compliance. Perhaps it is time to rethink how digital public services work and demand accountability from these platforms.
