By tagging Nandan Nilekani, FM Sitharaman has set new standards of accountability

It is safe to say that Nirmala Sitharaman has been the country’s best Finance Minister to date. It’s a herculean task of reinvigorating the national economy in the times of a once in a century pandemic. Now, FM Sitharaman has set new standards of accountability as after distressed users flagged the non-functioning of the new income tax filing portal, which was developed by Infosys, the finance minister escalated the issue to Infosys Chairman Nandan Nilekani as Sitharaman tagged him on Twitter and urged him to resolve the issue at the earliest.

Setting a new benchmark when it comes to accountability, FM Sitharaman escalated the issue of non-functioning of the portal to Nandan Nilekani himself. Replying to a distressed user’s tweet on the non-functioning of the government’s much-hyped new income tax filing portal, Sitharaman tweeted, “The much awaited e-filing portal 2.0 was launched last night 20:45hrs. I see in my TL grievances and glitches.Hope @Infosys & @NandanNilekani will not let down our taxpayers in the quality of service being provided. Ease in compliance for the taxpayer should be our priority.”

While Infosys was yet to reply, Nilekani replied to the finance minister as he tweeted, “The new e-filing portal will ease the filing process and enhance end user experience. @nsitharamanji, we have observed some technical issues on day one, and are working to resolve them. @Infosys regrets these initial glitches and expects the system to stabilise during the week.”

While the replies to Sitharaman’s and Nilekani’s tweet were extremely negative with people venting out their frustrations and wondering why the vendor and the service receiver are discussing this in the public domain instead of providing swift resolution. An argument can be made about why the much-hyped portal didn’t work during the day of its launch and why will it take a week to stabilise despite being in the capable hands of Infosys.

Tagging Nilekani is a precedent for other leaders to call for accountability and an example for other such people who could be called out by the government in the future. Their name and reputation including their brand would take a slight hit and it would make them ensure that ‘this never happens again.’ Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman must be appreciated for this act and listening to the distressed users. One hopes that she continues to set new benchmarks of accountability.