Tata Consultancy Services has pipped Infosys and Wipro to bag a Rs 193-crore contract for setting up and managing a new software platform for the Income Tax Department, it is reliably learned.
With this project, the Department hopes to tighten the noose around tax evaders and cast the tax net wider while offering a better technology experience to the regular taxpayer.
As part of the six-year arrangement, TCS will setup a new platform - the Income Tax Business Application. While the platform will be ready in 12 months, the Tata group company will manage the project operations for five years.
TCS will take responsibility for ‘current assets, augmenting the infrastructure, developing the new application, undertake maintenance of the existing applications and managing the transition from old to new application…” as per the project document seen by
Moreover, TCS will also be responsible for providing human resources management across all the Departments offices.
Deal signed today
A formal contract was signed between the two parties in New Delhi today, multiple sources said. Interestingly, there was a substantial difference between the price quoted by the winning bidder and the other bidders. While Wipro had put in a bid for Rs 320 crore, Infosys had quoted Rs 360 crore for the project, sources said. However, this could not be officially confirmed.
Over the next 6-9 months, TCS will develop a prototype of the ITBA solution. According to the project document, TCS will also have to deploy the necessary infrastructure at the department’s data centre and disaster recovery sites. Most of the development work related to the project will happen in the National Capital Region.
In the last few years, the IT Department has embarked on several initiatives to upgrade the existing technology. When completed, the various projects would enable the department to carry out a complete profiling of taxpayers.