ITR portal: Govt says managed service provider was penalised in FY26 for outages and due date extension

The government penalised the managed service provider (MSP) of the income tax e-filing portal in FY 2025-26 after technical glitches forced an extension of the ITR filing deadline.

Union Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary stated in a Lok Sabha response on July 20, 2026, that penalties are imposed if the due date extension is attributable to the MSP.

The MSP was also penalised for delayed rollout of the Integrated e-Filing and Centralized Processing Centre 2.0 project in July 2020 through liquidated damages.

Penalties were applied for 12 quarters due to the MSP failing to meet prescribed service-level performance scores, including prolonged outages and operational lapses.

An ITR deadline extension this year is considered unlikely as the portal, operated by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), handles high traffic but transient issues are being managed.